Barack Obama's campaign managers told the press that the Illinois senator will suspend his presidential campaign for two days later this week. He will keep his schedule Tuesday in Florida. But his plans for Thursday and Friday in Wisconsin and Iowa will be replaced with campaign stops in Indiana on Wednesday.
Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has become very ill and he will spend the two days with her in Hawaii instead of out on the campaign trail.
Dunham helped to raise Obama and the two have always been close.
From a campaign spokesperson [via USA Today]:
"Recently, his grandmother has become ill, and in the last few weeks,
her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very
serious. ..."
Obama mentions the 86-year-old Dunham frequently. She was a trailblazer in her own right, too. Her grandson wasn't the only person influenced by her.
She "blazed a feminist trail in Hawaii banking circles in
the late 1960s and early 1970s and rose to become one of the Bank of
Hawaii's first female vice presidents."
