Obama recalls his mother’s struggles

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/07/15 3:23 PM ET

President Obama discusses the role his mother played in his life in a new video released by the White House on Saturday.

“My mom, like a lot of single moms, had to struggle, to work. Then she went to school, raised me and raised my sister,” Obama says in the video when asked who most influenced his life.

{mosads}Obama added he was most proud of his mother “probably when she finished her PhD. finally, ’cause it took her a long time. She had to work, she had to raise kids. It was a victory of her spirit.”

Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, passed away in 1995 at the age of 52.

The president’s comments came while welcoming to the Oval Office this week Vidal Chastanet and his Brooklyn middle school principal for a feature on the Humans of New York blog. Obama offered the 13-year-old student life advice, shown in a series of posts on the site’s Facebook page.

Asked by Nadia Lopez, principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy, when Obama has felt “broken,” he replied, “I tend to have a pretty buoyant spirit.”

The video ends with Obama telling his guests, “You don’t do things alone. Nobody does things alone. Everybody always needs support.”

Tags Ann Dunham Obama family