Ruby Penn's television set was tuned to the President's inaugural address Monday afternoon, but her thoughts were also with her father, who died October 2nd at the age of 99.
Charles Edwards Sr. met Barack Obama in June 2008 at a campaign rally in Bristol, where he gave the presidential candidate a hand-carved walking stick.
"If members of Congress don't pass my health care bill," Obama told the crowd after accepting the gift, "I'm ready, I'll whup 'em."
"Daddy has always been my hero, daddy and mom," Ruby Penn told us. "They not only wanted to do things to make life better for us, they wanted to make life better for the community and for the United States."
Four and a half years after that visit in Bristol, Penn scanned the crowd for a glimpse of her sister Penny Blue who attended the inaugural events in Washington. And she followed the coverage with her daughter Malala, her sister Linda Edwards-White, and her nephew's son Mekih Edwards. They reflected on the significance of the celebration.
"This shows me that African Americans can do everything and anything they want to," 15-year-old Malala said, "as long as they set up their goals and as long as they stay in school."
"I'm glad that I am able to see one of my parents' dreams come true," Linda Edwards-White told us, "and that is that a black man was elected President and reelected President."
Charles Edwards didn't live to see President Obama's reelection, but his children know he would be proud that the candidate he met in the summer of 2008 and voted for that November is now beginning his second term as President of the United States.
