Marian Robinson, First Grandmother of the US

If the Hotel Sofitel, on the corner of 15th and H, had not received a phone call from the White House explaining who was going to be arriving, they never would have found out. She arrived with a friend and went directly to the Ici Urban Bistro, a red, black and gray space with a chic and slightly minimalistic air, which is to the right of the hotel’s hall.

No one saw the Secret Service agents, the special unit of U.S. security forces that takes care of all of the government’s higher-ups and diplomatic body. However, it is not very likely that there was no security.

Ici’s visitor is the First Mother-in-Law of the United States: Mrs. R. to her friends, the First Grandmother to the press, and Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama’s mother, to the rest of humanity.

Since then, Mrs. R. has returned to Ici Urban Bistro multiple times. She always goes with a friend, and if it’s free, she sits at the table located on the far right of the restaurant. Her favorite dish is a mushroom and chicken crepe with a tarragon sauce, accompanied by a glass of Sancerre wine. Everything is very French, something logical at the Sofitel, where even the saltshakers are French imports. The crepe is small and minimalistic, like everything at Ici. However, it is very sweet. Also, the Sancerre — French, from Loire — is a fruity, smooth and light wine. Typical grandmother food and at a not-very-expensive price for Washington: $34.10 (24,75 euros). Including the minimum tip in the U.S. of 25 percent, the total ends up about 31 euros.

No one who passes by the street would think that the woman seated next to the window facing the Sofitel’s terrace is one of the most powerful people in the United States, and by extension, the world. Also, she seems to be one of the few mothers-in-law in the solar system who gets along with her son-in-law. While Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mother and wife lived in constant war, that is not the case for the Obamas. Of course, there are people who say that everything Michelle does has to seem good to Barack.

The Granddaughters’ Supernanny

Marian Shields Robinson, who will turn 77 in July, is the first mother-in-law to live in the White House since Eisenhower’s presidency, 52 years ago. However, she is not with her daughter and her daughter’s husband just because. She has a role: to raise her granddaughters, Sasha and Malia, as Barack’s grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn, did with him.

In the United States, particularly in black and Native American communities, the idea that grandparents take care of grandchildren symbolizes problems of social disintegration that lead to broken families in these communities, where each child has a distinct father. This was Obama’s case. However, if Mrs. R. headed to Washington from Chicago, it was for the opposite reason: Her daughter and son-in-law had reached the American social apex, which did not leave them time to take care of their daughters.

Thus, Marian Robinson moved to the third floor of the White House, what she calls “my home.” Each morning, she takes Sasha and Malia to school; every night, she is in charge of the girls. Now, during the recent trip that Michelle and the girls have taken to China, Robinson’s presence has been more visible. There has been a break in her anonymity, which, until now, helped her lead a normal life, but not without certain obsessions. Mrs. R. puts her own dirty clothes into the White House’s laundry machine. The reason? She does not want anyone to touch her underwear.

Obama’s mother-in-law has been seen shopping at Filene’s Basement, a chain of low-cost clothing stores, and having lunch or dinner at Equinox, a sophisticated restaurant located next to the Sofitel and the White House. To relax, like all elderly women with money in the United States, she goes to the casinos in Las Vegas with her friends. It is the life of a normal grandmother with a high standard of living in the United States — only in her case, she is the First Grandmother.