Shared Experience: Loss Before Triumph

Reports have informed the American public, and the rest of the world, that Senator Barack Obama lost his grandmother to a long battle with cancer. I know what it like to loose a grandmother the way that Obama has. My paternal grandmother died during my first year at Cornell. When I decided to come East to finish my education she asked me if I was going to leave which I was somewhat apprehensive in expressing to her because I know she wanted me to be close to home. However, she understood what I was trying to do and the trajectory I was seeking with my training as a historian and a holistic scholar in the best sense.

As I watch the emotion on Obama's face, I think back to how I felt when my grandmother died and how it occurred as I started a new chapter in my life. While there was sorrow and pain, there was also joy in the possibilities that lay ahead. Obama is on the cusp of something great. My grandmother will never see me as a professor, as "Dr. Mitchell" just as Mrs. Madelyn Payne Dunham will never know her grandson as "President Obama", but deep inside I know that both women knew what the future held for their grandsons.

As I prepare to head to the polls to vote in a few hours, my prayers are with the Obama Family during this time of loss which ultimately I hope will be a time of triumph for us all when Obama is elected as the 44th President of the United States of America.