Honolulu: US presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Hawaii on Friday to visit his gravely ill grandmother.
Obama was raised by his grandmother, 85-year-old Madelyn Dunham, for much of his childhood.
"She has really been the rock of the family, the foundation of the family. Whatever strength, discipline that I have, it comes from her," Obama said of her grandmother.
Obama arrived early on Friday in his native state, after an 11-hour flight from Indiana where he held a morning rally on Thursday.
Obama told CBS television that he decided to make the exhausting journey half-way across the Pacific to see Dunham since he "got there too late" when his mother died.
"I want to make sure that I don't -- I don't make the same mistake twice," Obama said.
Dunham is reportedly suffering from a broken hip and generally failing health. Obama was due to return to the trail in Nevada on Saturday.
Obama arrives in Hawaii to visit ill grandmother
Obama arrives in Hawaii to visit ill grandmother