故ジョン・マケイン米上院議員の母ロバータさん死去　１０８歳

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】故ジョン・マケイン米上院議員の母親、ロバータ・マケインさんが死去した。108歳だった。マケイン氏の妻シンディさんが12日、発表した。（写真は米首都ワシントンの連邦議会議事堂で行われたジョン・マケイン上院議員の追悼式典に参列する、母親のロバータ・マケインさん）
　シンディさんはツイッターに「素晴らしい義理の母ロバータ・マケインが永眠したことを、深い悲しみをもってお伝えします。彼女以上に模範的な人物、友人はいませんでした」と投稿した。
　ロバータさんは石油王の娘として生まれ、１９歳の時に米海軍大将の息子ジョン・Ｓ・マケイン・ジュニア氏と、メキシコのティフアナに駆け落ちし、３人の子どもに恵まれた。その一人が故ジョン・マケイン氏で、同氏は父親や祖父と同じ道を選び海軍兵学校に進んだ。ベトナム戦争では捕虜となったことで知られている。
　アリゾナ州選出の上院議員だったマケイン氏が２０１８年に脳腫瘍で死去した際には、追悼式典でのロバータさんの毅然（きぜん）とした姿が印象的だった。
　マケイン氏は自身の著書の中で、ロバータさんのことを「意志の強い女性で、人生をとことん楽しみ、常に与えられた機会を最大限に生かそうとしていた」と書いている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/10/14-12:26）

Roberta McCain, the mother of the late US senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, has died at the age of 108, her daughter-in-law announced on Monday.
It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my wonderful Mother In-law, Roberta McCain, Cindy McCain, John McCain's widow, said in a tweet. I couldn't have asked for a better role model or a better friend.
Roberta McCain, the daughter of an oil magnate, eloped to Tijuana, Mexico, at the age of 19 with John S. McCain Jr, the son of a US Navy admiral who went on to become an admiral himself.
They had three children including John S. McCain III, who followed his father and grandfather into the military, attending the US Naval Academy and becoming a naval aviator during the Vietnam War.
In 1967, Roberta McCain and her husband were in London, dressing for a party, when they got a call saying her Johnny, as she called him, had been shot down over Hanoi, and did not appear to have ejected from his warplane.
The following day, a steward broke the news to them that McCain had been captured as a prisoner of war.
Can you believe that's the best news I ever had in my life? she said in a 2008 interview when her son was running for president, a race he lost to Democrat Barack Obama.
John McCain died of brain cancer in 2018 and the silver-haired family matriarch cut a stoic figure at memorial services for the Arizona senator.
John McCain, in one of his books, wrote that his mother was raised to be a strong, determined woman who thoroughly enjoyed life, and always tried to make the most of her opportunities.
She travelled widely throughout her life and sought once, when in her 90s, to rent a car in France, but was denied because of her age.
Undeterred, she bought a car and tooled around Europe, then shipped it to the US east coast and drove it to California, she told The New York Times.