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It appears that some day my tiny toddler daughter is going to go off on her own into the world (today, actually, if I’d let her). And it also seems to be the case that she may possibly have hard, bad, sad things happen to her, and she will feel upset, and this will be heartbreaking to me: whether it’s someone saying something mean about her, or her having marriage troubles, or, you know, losing a bid to be the presidential nominee. I’m sure she could bear anything – but me? I’m not so sure.

Dorothy Howell Rodham, the mother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, died early Tuesday, at age 92. According to the Daily Beast, Rodham had been living with her daughter since 2006, just before Clinton launched her campaign for the presidency. Whatever you think of Clinton, can you imagine how proud her mother must have felt in those days, and how worried for her child? Rodham moved to Little Rock to be near Hillary when her marriage was in trouble; when the Clintons were in the White House Dorothy spent time there too, helping to raise Chelsea and support Hillary. (Read the original article on the Daily Beast for a heart-wrenching description of the difficult childhood Dorothy Howell Rodham overcame).

This is going to sound silly, but this article was the first time I ever thought of the Secretary of State as being someone’s little girl, of how hard and weird it must be to be the parent of a politician, whose life becomes so brutally public. Isn’t it amazing, what mothers go through, and help us through? 

More about mothers:
Oprah on the value of motherhood
 The truth about being a mom