A poignant moment

A day before the election and a week after Barack Obama interrupted his campaign to visit her in Hawaii, the Democratic candidate’s grandmother has died at 86. Madelyn Dunham was a central figure in Obama’s life, raising him during important childhood and teenage years when his mother was absent in Indonesia. On the night he secured the Democratic nomination in June, Obama paid an emotional tribute to his grandmother and he spoke movingly about her at a North Carolina rally on Monday night: