She Became a Mother at 18. Her Son Would One Day Become President. I came across this old photograph, and the more learned about the woman holding that little boy, the more I felt that her story deserved to be remembered on its own. Her name was Stanley Ann Dunham. Most people know her simply as Barack Obama's mother. But that description barely scratches the surface of the life she lived. Ann became a mother when she was only 18 years old. Her son, Barack, was born in Hawaii in 1961. She was young, but she didn't let becoming a mother at such an early age convince her that her own dreams had to end. Instead, she went back to school. She earned a bachelor's degree, later a master's degree, and eventually completed a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Hawaii in 1992. But her education wasn't simply about collecting degrees. Ann spent much of her protessional life studying poverty, rural communities, traditional crafts and the economic lives of ordinary people, particularly in Indonesia. She worked with organizations including USAID, the Ford Foundation, Women's World Banking and Bank Rakyat Indonesia, where she helped develop and promote microfinance programs designed to give poor families and rural entrepreneurs access to credit and economic opportunities. She was especially interested in helping women become economically independent. In other words, she wasn't just studying poverty from a distance. She was trying to find ways for people to escape it. And somehow, while doing all of this, she was also raising her children. Her son would later write about how deeply his mother's values shaped him—her curiosity about the world, her belief in education, and especially her ability to see dignity in people regardless of their background. But Ann never got to see what her son would eventually accomplish. In 1995, at just 52 years old, she died in Hawaii after battling cancer. Thirteen years later, in November 2008, her son Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. She wasn't there to watch him stand on that stage. She didn't hear the cheers. She didn't see the historic moment when her son became the first Black president of the United States. And that's the part of this story that gets me. She spent her life investing in people, education, opportunity and the belief that ordinary people could build better lives. She raised a boy who would eventually carry many of those values onto the world's biggest political stage. She never got to see the history her son made. But perhaps, in a way, a part of her was standing there with him. Because before he was a president, he was simply her little boy. And behind that little boy was a mother who believed he could become whatever he wanted to be. That's a legacy far bigger than a presidency. - @fabrisgassmoney