Michelle Obama and brother Craig Robinson were reflecting on their mother’s death when she recalled a conversation with her husband, former President Barack Obama.
“I guess if anything, with mom’s loss, I think that that — thank God you’re my big brother and I have a husband who’s older,” Michelle, 61, said during the Wednesday, May 7, episode of the “IMO” podcast. “Barack was saying, you know, ‘Well, you’re next up.’ 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.”
Michelle and Craig, 63, lost their mother, Marian Robinson, at age 86 in May 2024. Michelle confirmed the news in a social media statement at the time. (Their father, Fraser C. Robinson III, died at age 55 in 1991.)
“That’s really when you become an adult, is when your parents are not in that spot of managing and maintaining,” Michelle continued. “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.”
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Both Michelle and Craig agreed that there were “big shoes to fill” after losing their parents.
“It’s a major shift in your life,” Michelle continued. “I don’t care how old you get. Mom and dad are mom and dad. Even when I was taking care of mom, I still gotta listen to her. I can sort of boss her around but in the end, she’s my mother.
She added, “There’s a comfort level in that, knowing that no matter how wise or experienced I am in the world, mom always knew more.”
Losing a parent is “a big dose” of reality, Michelle said — especially if there is no preparation beforehand.
Michelle and Craig, however, were aware of exactly what their mom wanted.
“The listeners should know that mom’s been threatening to drop dead for 20 years,” Craig said. “She has been preparing us for this. So, she left very direct instructions on what she wanted and how she wanted things to be. We had to take that into account.”
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Michelle noted that their mother didn’t want “anything fancy” and only wanted “a few people” in attendance at her funeral service.
“I was concerned about making sure that you, my brother, felt seen in our decisions to memorialize her, because it becomes a production,” she added. Craig noted that he did.
“As we both know, mom wanted it, like, ‘I don’t want an hour and a half memorial.’ I think she was worried about the time, she was worried about the amount of money we spent on it,” he explained. “She wanted to make sure that family was going to be involved, and you made sure all of that took place.”
