An opinion | by MADALYNE BIRD

A hero of mine recently died.  I spent most of the weekend after his death watching the funeral and burial service on television. The service was fit for a president, rather than a senator.  But we must remember who this country has lost.

Senator Teddy Kennedy, the youngest and final living member of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy’s nine children, lost his battle with brain cancer at age 77.  The loud, boisterous democrat from Massachusetts was a long standing figure in the United States Senate.  Serving for almost 47 years, he was the third longest serving senator in US history.

Known by his colleagues for being the ‘Lion of the Senate,’ Kennedy authored more than 2,500 bills during his time of service. He was steadfast in his fight for civil rights, immigration, health care and poverty.  He was a key player in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  He was the Kennedy brother who made the most impact.

But at times, Kennedy’s achievements were overshadowed by the mistakes and tragedies in his life.  However those tragedies and hardships that he faced such as the deaths of his older siblings, especially John and Bobby might have completely broken a lesser man.  He went from the youngest of nine children to the patriarch of a large family.  But through those tragedies, he showed us all, especially me, how to deal with the bad and ugly things in my life. Gracefully.

Jackie Kennedy, John’s widow, said it best in a thank you note she wrote the senator after he gave his niece Caroline away.  She said, ‘On you the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared.  Sick children, lost children, desolate wives.  You are hero.  Everyone is going to make it because you are always there with your love.”

Teddy’s death impacted me so much not only because I had seen documentaries on him, read articles and books, but because he was the last of an era in our country.  But what I will remember most about Teddy though, was his deep compassion for others.  He taught me that politics are more than a debate over issues.  ‘Politics is personal.’  Because of Teddy’s legacy the dream will always live on.

Kennedy can best be remembered in the same way he wished his brother Bobby to be remembered.  ”¦Need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it…[we] pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.’