Michelle Obama is recalling the response her husband Barack Obama had after her mother’s death that reminded her of the new responsibility she now has within her family.
The former first lady, 61, opened up about grieving the May 2024 death of her mother, Marian Robinson, during a special Mother’s Day conversation with her older brother, Craig Robinson, on the May 7 episode of the pair’s “IMO” podcast.
The 44th president, she recalled, told her after her mother’s death, “You’re next up.”
“That’s sort of the darned thing about being a grown-up. When you lose your parents, you’re next up,” Michelle Obama said about her new role as the family’s matriarch. “I guess if anything with mom’s loss, I thank God you’re my big brother and I have a husband who’s older.”
“Because Barack was saying, ‘Well, you’re next up.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not really ready to be next up.’ I told him, ‘You’re next up. And Craig is next up. I delegate that power to you,'” she joked.
Despite her many accomplishments, Michelle Obama said her mother’s death made her realize — with no shortage of jitters — that she was now exclusively in charge of “managing” her own life.
“That’s really when you become an adult, when your parents are not in that spot of managing and maintaining. But that’s going to happen at some point, where each of us in our own lives, we become the parent, we become the convener, we become the glue,” she said.
She added that she had always taken “comfort” in the fact that her mom’s advice to her was always spot-on.
“There’s a comfort level in knowing that no matter how wise or experienced I am in the world, Mom always knew more. Even if that wasn’t true, it was just a good feeling, ‘Let me go talk to my mommy.’”
