From www. nytimes. com
August 29, 2009, 11:29 am
The Kennedy Funeral
By Kate Phillips
Pool photograph by Brian Snyder Former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former president George W. Bush and his wife Laura, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden and his wife Jill, former first lady Rosalynn Carter and former President Jimmy Carter wait for the services to begin. The funeral for Senator Edward M. Kennedy begins at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help just outside Boston. The rain outside, and the wet streets, offer up a symbolism often remarked upon at dampened funerals as a renewal of life. Or that the heavens are weeping.
The senator’s stepchildren and his daughter begin with liturgical readings. Kara Kennedy reads: ―Justice shall flourish in his time in fullness and peace forever,‖ as the refrain for one of the readings.
Vicki Kennedy, the senator’s widow, his sister Jean and his siste r-in-law Ethel Kennedy helped replace the flag that had draped the casket with a white celebratory cloth for the funeral mass. President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who offered very personal memories Friday night, with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, sit across the aisle from the Kennedy family. Just behind them in the next pew are former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura. (The Boston Globe has published a full list of the dignitaries who attended.) On this day, it seems readily apparent that the finality of the senator’s death is sinking in among his family. And in this church, where the senator prayed for his daughter’s recovery from cancer, the Rev. Mark Hession said, ―We’re reminded that the most public personalities also live a most personal existence.‖ As a priest, he said, he saw th e senator treasure and draw strength from his family. He called him a towering strength for the nation and for his family.
Father Hession ended his homily by talking about the last moments of Senator Kennedy’s life: ―As one lives more toward the final mom ents of
life, the public character fades and the deeper personal convictions and commitments which have sustained a person through a long and complex life come to occupy the center stage. This was the case in the last few months as Ted and Vicki together f aced the last measure of his life.‖
The nieces and nephews are now leading ―The Lord hear our prayer‖ refrains, with a youngest talking about health care. A grandson, Teddy Kennedy III, recited the senator’s words about how the dream lives on. Of Mission Church on Tremont Street, where the funeral is taking place, the Boston Globe’s columnist Adrian Walker wrote this last week about the church’s place in the neighborhood, how it’s changed and what it means for the citizenry surrounding it.
At the offerings of peace, Vicki Kennedy walked across the aisle to shake hands and kiss Mr. Obama and his wife, as well as former President Clinton. She hugged lengthily Mrs. Clinton before going on to shake the hands of former President Jimmy Carter.
At the blessing of the Eucharist, the Kennedy family kneels —an old-school Catholic tradition. On the other side of the aisle, so do Vice President Biden and his wife while Mr. Obama and his wife sit.
The ―Ave Maria‖ —sung by Susan Graham here —draws tears from Kara Kennedy, the senator’s daughter, a lingering sadness and gulp from Vicki Kennedy, and as the cameras pan in, former President Bill Clinton seems equally moved.
The Children’s Stories: Ted Kennedy Jr. offered up perhaps one of the most personal tales today, in talking about his father helped him time and again to sled a snowy hill after the boy had lost his leg to cancer. The younger Ted Kennedy remembered that his father spent the day, telling him he knew he could do it. And they did. And as for those sailing days, the son said he kept asking, why are we always the last ones out there? His father told him others may be more talented, but that they would be more prepared.
When he finished, he and his brother embraced in the aisle in a way that was close and touching.
Patrick Kennedy, sometimes breaking up, was perhaps watched more closely because of his own foibles. But he remarked that as a child with asthma, he got the best rooms and the jackpot: His father would be his roommate, and keep his head cool with a towel until he fell asleep. President Obama’s eulogy is deeply personal. It closes with this imagery:
Ted Kennedy has gone home now, guided by his faith and by the light of those he has loved and lost. At last he is with them once more, leaving those of us who grieve his passing with the memories he gave, the good he did, the dream he kept alive, and a single, enduring image – the image of a man on a boat; white mane tousled; smiling broadly as he sails into the wind, ready for what storms may come, carrying on toward some new and wondrous place just beyond the horizon. May God Bless Ted Kennedy, and may he rest in eternal peace.
The mass ends, the honor guard drapes the casket again with the United States flag and covers the flag with plastic to keep it safe from yet another downpour. The senator’s body will now be flown to Andrews Air Force Base, where a hearse will take him for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony there begins at 5:30 p.m.
But before the final ceremony, the diaspora of Kennedy staff —an extended family over almost five decades in and of itself — will gather on the steps outside the Senate chamber at the Capitol Building, where the senator’s motorcade is expected to stop in mid-afternoon for a brief moment in tribute to his nearly 47 years of service in Congress.