While Barack was writing Dreams from My Father, he communicated frequently with his mother, Ann, to ask her questions about his childhood. Ann was living in Indonesia where she had returned once again to do anthropological research. Shortly before Barack's book was published, Ann told that she had cancer and returned to Hawaii to live with her mother. Only a few months later, in November 1995,she died at the age of fifty-two. Barack had not known how close she was to death, and he was sorry that he had not been with her when she died. He was also sorry that he had not written more about her in Dreams from My Father. In the 2004 edition of the book, he said, "I know that she was the kindest, most generous Spirit I have ever known".