Barack Obama, the secret Good Samaritan
Flying to Norway to start a new life, Mary Anderson got a helping hand from a stranger: Barack Obama. In her own words . . .
For Barack Obama’s inauguration we call your attention to a little-publicized event in 1988, after the future president left his gig as a community organizer in Chicago and enrolled in Harvard Law School. The unknown Obama delivered a random act of kindness to a complete stranger at a baggage check-in line at Miami’s international airport.
The recipient: a former California girl named Mary Menth Andersen (left, with her husband, holding a letter from Obama). This story first came to light a month before the 2008 U. S. presidential election in Norway’s national newspaper, VG.
It was verified to Soul’s Code by H. Dagfinn Kvale, a long-time Lutheran pastor who knows Andersen.
Click here to read the remarkable back-story of Mary Andersen’s encounter with Barack Obama. In this special to Soul’s Code, Mary celebrates the against-all-odds inauguration of her Good Samaritan from 21 years ago:
GUEST COLUMN: MARY ANDERSEN — On the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, as domino arrays of disasters sit on our doorstep, I find myself strangely confident. Can a small act of individual kindness, so long ago, still compel this spirited optimism I feel for everyone?
Since that day in 1988 I’ve been impressed and intrigued by the power of one. Daily, each of us are presented opportunities to make a difference in peoples lives. Twenty years ago Barack Obama made a conscious decision to help me, and I suspect that is his challenge and invitation to you and me today. The example he set with me will inspire you to want to do better.
I’ve observed that Mr. Obama possesses a capacity to understand and listen to the weakest in our communities. Now he is awarded the opportunity and ability to work and problem-solve with the worlds most powerful.
Thankfully, fear and suspicion will no longer be the catalyst for policy.
It is my hope that the coming years will inspire countless acts of courage, engagement — and excite a wave of solution-seeking activism. I believe that as a nation, and as individuals, we are entering an acute era of self-actualization. With the inauguration of Barack Obama, a remedy and philosophy of hope will be restored.
Mary Andersen is a former Californian who now lives in Åsgårdstrand, Norway with her husband of two decades, Dag. She remains a U.S. citizen, and voted for Barack Obama. This is the first time she has written about him.
Obama “rescued” Mary — paid trip to Norway
The moving account published in Norwegian in the national newspaper, VG, on October 4, 2008
Nice! I’m making a hard effort to stop reading negative sources of media and try to focus on the neutral/happy stuff…
We worked for weeks on these twin pieces because they had a too-good-to-be-true quality, which made them worth grooming. I did what I would have done in my past life as an award-winning investigative journalist: We verified the story with Mary Andersen herself, the minister who was head of the church in which she married her husband, and we have even posted the letter that Senator Obama wrote in 2006 confirming the minor miracle that Mary experienced in Miami, courtesy of the future president.
I love this story because . . .
Consider Dr. Wayne Dyer, the self-help celebrity who sometimes gives a $100 bill to a member of the audience at his concert-hall-sized talks. It’s partly a stunt that promotes his brand, ticket sales to his talks, and his books.
In this real-world example we’ve posted, though, Obama’s gratuitous service to another was not staged. He acted in the moment, spontaneously, had no audience, and was not trying to sell books. He was nowhere near his future Illinois constituents — and never had his staff leak the story to the media, even when he was running for president.
Mary herself is not a writer or a publicity hound; she’s a bit of recluse, and it took weeks of inviting her to share what she did. We thank her for trusting this audience.
p.s.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Inflation Calculator,” $100 in 1988 is worth about $185 today. Let’s each take a step back, and ask ourselves, ‘How many times have I given away that much to bail out a total stranger on the spot?’
I am glad you appreciated “Åsgårdstrand and the Obama connection,” which was an account I published in the Norwegian American Weekly, just after the miraculous election, based on my own meetings with Mary Menth Andersen in Norway — both in 2006 and 2007. I can confirm that it is a true story.
By the way, Mary and Dag Andersen were married in the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in San Francisco in October 1988, and although I had two tenures at that church during my career, I was not the officiant at their wedding. Now I am a “Pastor Emeritus,” as I retired in January 2002. I divide my time between San Anselmo, California and Valdres, Norway. Here is a brief outline of my posts:
Pastor, Norwegian Seamen’s Church/Norwegian Church Abroad, San Francisco,1966-75; Pastor/Embassy Chaplain, Norwegian Church and Seamen’s Mission, London, England, 1975 to 1988; Head Pastor (sokneprest), Jeløy-Moss, Norway, 1988-1994; Pastor, Norwegian Seamen’s Church, San Francisco 1994-2002.
Great pieces, good work all round. I really like it that Obama practiced random acts of kindness.
Thank you so much all of you, for bringing this information to us.
He paid for a plane ticket? People do acts of good work all the time and that doesn’t mean they should be president of the United States. I think it’s ridiculous that you’re elevating this man to the level of Jesus and I think you’re going to be in for a rude awakening when you realize that he can’t possibly solve all the problems in this nation overnight, let alone in four years.
…meanwhile, BO’s half brother is STILL living in a shack in Kenya on 20 American dollars a year. (The Obamas could send him the money they spent eating out at one restaurant on a single night and give this guy 20 or 30 times his annual income.)
And meanwhile, BO’s aunt is STILL living in a slum in Boston even as Obama spent 3 million on a single seven day vacation in Hawaii.
And did I mention that Obama promised to treat us like one of his family?
I think the point is that Obama seems like a real human being. Flaws and acts of kindness, hopefully just like the rest of us. He and now the nation is clear that he can’t solve all the problems, but that he can inspire us to work toward solutions, In that regard he’s just like Jesus who wasn’t a “Messiah” either but a human being who understood and lived out a level of compassion.
what a lovely piece about an unknown act of kindness by our now 44th president, in this day and age where most people do not practice kindness to strangers, unless as part of a publicity stunt, its encouraging to know that our new president is someone who does and that the new resident at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue is someone who connects in the small and big ways with us all.