Ethel Kennedy, RIP

Venice, Italy — A few days ago, when Ethel Kennedy passed away, I was in faraway Italy. Padua to be exact. But I did not want her passing to go unnoticed by me. She was a special kind of Democrat to me. Her sense of humor and sense of fun extended to Republicans.

Even the Wall Street Journal noted that in its sparkling obit of her. She was famous for her sense of fun, which she kept up despite being struck by tragedy after tragedy. She had a sense of fun which she maintained especially after the grind of politics was over for the day.

I remember one particular evening at her home, Hickory Hill, when she stood in the doorway greeting guest after guest at that historic manse. She had even included me among her guests as improbable as that might sound. She could not have been more effervescent when she greeted me. “Oh, I know why you are here,” she smiled. “You are Kathleen’s guest, and she is so-oo conservative.” Ethel laughed. Kathleen is her daughter and former lieutenant governor of Maryland. She may be conservative on some things, but I had utterly failed to convince her of Milton Friedman’s free market economics. We settled on human rights violations and Catholic values.

But Kathleen and Ethel for that matter shared with me the belief that friendship (and patriotism) always trump politics. Theirs was of the kind that recently was seen in the splendid movie, Reagan. In that film there is a scene where Tip O’Neill appears at the bedside of the recently shot President Ronald Reagan and slips a Rosary over the President’s hand. They shared a joke about both being Irish. Politics could wait for the next day.

That night at Hickory Hill and on other memorable occasions we all abjured politics for the evening. The only thing Ethel would not abjure was joking about the Rosary. She was a daily communicant and now her journey is over.

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