My sister lost her battle with cancer in the brain the day before Thanksgiving Day 2006. And on Thanksgiving I thanked our Lord for finally taking her. I hope the Kennedy family does not have to go through what we did.

As the summer of ‘04 ended we gathered at my sister’s home to celebrate the MRI confirming that two years of chemo and radiation had destroyed cancer in her lungs. She complained of a headache that never seemed to go away but we thought nothing of it. Then in October she suffered a seizure and doctors found a tumor in her brain. They removed a plum-sized tumor. She never seemed to fully recover from that surgery; her personality changed and she had short term memory problems. Persistent headaches returned in January 2006 and doctors found a cluster of small tumors in her brain. Laser “surgery” in March failed to kill or shrink the tumors. By June we knew the tumors were growing and doctors said there was nothing they could do. On the 4th of July, using a walker, she was able to go out to dinner with us. But by Labor Day she couldn’t sit up in bed without assistance although she could spend hours in an easy chair or her wheelchair if we lifted her out of bed and seated her. Within a few weeks she was confined to her bed. I never imagined that things would progress so rapidly. Then, during the saddest week of my life, I got a court order to void her partner’s power of attorney and from 1,500 miles away had her city police and a caseworker from her state’s adult protective services remove her from her home and take her to her hospital’s hospice, where she died peacefully a few days later.

I would not wish the eperience of those years on anyone. If Kennedy’s situation is “bad” I hope for his family’s sake that he goes quickly.

It took me a long time to accept Senator Kennedy but then I came to believe that he did, indeed, represent the people of Massachusetts. And under our constitutional system the people of Massachusetts have a right to elect a liberal just as my state’s voters have a right to send a social conservative to the Senate.

I find it hard to believe that I was still in college when Ted Kennedy was elected to the Senate to take the seat previously held by John Kennedy. And even harder to believe the one time playboy has as a senator accomplished more than his brothers John and Robert. OOnly two men, Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd, have served longer in the Senate.

I have to agree with one of the election night pundits: whether one agrees or disagrees with Kennedy’s politics, when it comes to impacting public policy Ted Kennedy would have to rank among the top ten senators in the Senate’s history.

Since we’re above that, I’ll refrain from saying anything.

So that a less experienced Democrat (Being from MA, they will be a Democrat) can take his place and have less clout, less experience and less of a national following.

Regards,
Peter H.