Gift From The Obamas Mistakenly Mailed To Wrong Family In Chicago

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 2, 2014 9:40PM

A woman in Chicago’s northern suburbs received a surprise package in the mail during the holidays—a present from the Obamas intended for the godmother of daughters Sasha and Malia. This isn’t going to engender trust in the United States Postal Service.

Alane Church of Wadsworth, Ill. received the gift New Year’s Eve as part of a box of gifts sent to her by her brother-in-law in New York. The box, according to Church, was not in the best shape and arrived a week late. Church told USA Today the box was in “major disarray.”

"The gifts were broken opened. Parts of the old box were in this box repackaged. In the bottom of the box was the extra gift, and we were reading the tag, trying to figure out, you know, where this came from and it was opened. We discovered this was a personal gift for Mama Kaye."

“Mama Kaye” is the nickname for Kaye Wilson, Sasha and Malia Obama’s godmother and a close personal friend of First Lady Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson. Wilson and her husband Wellington Wilson were profiled by the Chicago Tribune in 2011 after Wilson accompanied the Obamas, with Robinson, on an official visit to South and Central America. She’s helped care for the Obama girls over the years: baby-sitting them while the president was on the campaign trail and escorting them to afterschool activities.

Church told NBC’s Today show the gift to Wilson was a “beautiful” photobook of the Obama girls’ 2013 year in review. She shared the greeting with Today but declined to share photos from the gift. Church promised to forward the gift to the Wilsons. The White House said Thursday the Obamas appreciated that Church intends to send the gift to the Wilsons, who live in Olympia Fields, Ill.

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