The saddest day of my life to date has been the day my grandmother passed - I was at her bed-side until moments before. I had lived with my grandmother for the first 18 years of my life, and she helped raise me along with my parents.  There's no need to get too sentimental here on this post, but suffice it say, I love my grandmother dearly.  Ironically, I didn't realize the void left by her passing anytime as profoundly as during my greatest personal triumphs or moments of pure joy.  The moments right after my wedding and the birth of my son are two distinct times where I remember taking a few minutes and thinking about my grandmother, thinking about those 18 years living with her (and all the years since with and without her), thinking about how much of her life had been devoted to bettering mine, thinking about how much joy she took and how much pride swelled in her whenever she saw me experience one of these joyous or triumphant moments, thinking about how many times she mentioned her desire to be there for my wedding and the birth of my children, and ultimately thinking about how devastating it was not to be able to share those moments with her.  Even writing about it now is almost too much to bear.

When I heard the news about Barack leaving the trail to be with his ill grandmother, these thoughts immediately came pouring back to me.  By now, most people know that Barack was raised by his grandparents and has a very special bond to his grandmother.  Indeed, she is his last living "parent".  As he stated, she has poured everything into raising him.  And although he has fulfilled those dreams and validated those sacrifices (you don't need an election to see that), he is now on the precipice of a remarkable and historic accomplishment.  I'm sure I can't imagine everything he's going through, but I think I can sympathize. 

For all those reasons, I hope that his grandmother recovers from her illness, but if not I hope first and foremost for the following:

- I hope that Barack gets the time and distance necessary to spend with his grandmother.

- I hope that she makes it to election day so that she can witness the history, experience the joy, and share the moment with Barack.

- I hope that after his celebration in Chicago, Barack gets to travel the next day to Hawaii and have a private celebration with her.

- I hope that she is there to see him get sworn in to office.

-  One other point - this one regarding the election itself.  I did not relate this to politics yet, but I hope for the following as the unintended but logical consequences of this situation during the next couple of days:  I hope that people will begin to see the human story of Barack Obama and finally see the Bill Ayers and other hateful attacks waged by Mccain/Palin and the GOP for the petty, desperate, and despicable attacks that they are.  I hope that people will see that this man suspended his campaigning not as a stunt for cheap political theatre when the polls were down and he was out of ideas, but because he needed to go and be at his grandmother's bedside.  These are the true values of this man for everyone to see -and the values that we all share and celebrate.

But mostly, I just hope that this is not his last visit with her. Otherwise, he'll feel the void as profoundly as I did.