At the NY Daily News Web site, you can read the text of Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention in which she spoke of her father, who had multiple sclerosis.
"My dad was our rock," she said. "Although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing - even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my Mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier, and worked a little harder."
Michelle Obama's late father, Frasier Robinson, worked as a city pump operator and was active in local Democratic politics in Chicago.