WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Barack Obama plans to take an unusual break from his quest for the White House this week to visit his 85-year-old grandmother in Hawaii.
The Democratic presidential candidate will be away from the campaign trail, skipping scheduled stops in Iowa and Wisconsin, ABC News reported Tuesday.
Richard Norton Smith, a presidential historian who has served as director of several presidential libraries, said that "never in the modern era" has a candidate stopped campaigning so close to the election.
"For a lot of people, this will be a defining moment," he said.
Madelyn Dunham, known to her grandson as "Toot" from the Hawaiian word for grandparent, is reportedly in failing health. Obama, accompanied by his wife and daughters spent his vacation in Hawaii during the summer to be with her.
In his speeches and books, Obama has often referred to the important role Dunham played in his life. In a major speech in March on race, he called her "a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me" while saying he had occasionally heard her use racial or ethnic slurs.
