Fix system that failed her
Even before they buried his sister, even before the wake, Joe Finn decided he had to meet the guy who ran her over.
Marie Conley, Joe Finn's sister, died as she lived, selflessly, using a stiff arm, like a running back, to block a 10-year-old boy from walking into the path of the car that hit her outside the Mather School in Dorchester last October.
Marie Conley was a crossing guard and wore one of those bright yellow vests, but Anis Cazeau, the 86-year-old man who ran her down, told the cops he didn't see her. Then he said she backed into him. Then he said he would never drive again, and whatever you think about the first two things he said, that last one is indisputably true.
Marie Conley's son, Marine Lance Corporal Chris Conley, had been in Iraq for just a few weeks when he got the call: Get home, and get home fast.
"We kept Marie on life support until Chris got home," Joe Finn said.
When they told Rita Finn her daughter, her Marie, was hurt really bad, Rita Finn took it hard.
"We had to bring my mother to the hospital," Joe Finn said. "She was in Boston Medical Center in one building, and Marie was in the building next door. After Marie died, we walked next door to tell my mother. It was my mother's 88th birthday."
Joe Finn has been a firefighter for 25 years - he's a deputy chief now - and he knows what happens to families when people die suddenly. There's grief and, in some cases, there's anger.
But when he went to Cazeau's house, he held no anger.
"I had to bring this guy some peace," Joe Finn said. "I told him, 'Look, you didn't get up this morning and decide to go out and run my sister over.' The poor guy cried the whole time."
It was not the first time Cazeau had grappled with hurting someone while he was behind the wheel. According to a police report from 2002, Cazeau was visibly upset and expressed remorse when, at the age of 80, his car collided with a 15-year-old boy on a bike in Roxbury, causing minor injuries.
In the six years that passed between that collision and his hitting Marie Conley, Cazeau's car was inspected exactly six times, and he was inspected exactly no times.
In Massachusetts, we test cars, not people, no matter how old, no matter how infirm. Until that changes, it is only a matter of time before another nice old man runs over somebody else like Marie Conley.
When Anis Cazeau, his license revoked, goes to court next month, Marie Conley's family will not be looking for vengeance.
"We told the DA, we don't want anything to happen to this guy" Joe Finn said. "What's putting him in jail going to accomplish?
"But he never should have been in a position to drive in his condition, with his driving record, in the first place. The law has to change. They've got to test drivers more. The system failed my sister."
Rita Finn went from the hospital to a nursing home. Something inside her died with her Marie.
When Chris Conley got back to Iraq, he found out two of his buddies got blown up in his absence. He got through that and will soon deploy to Afghanistan.
They're going to name a library at the Mather after Marie Conley. Her family is holding a golf tournament in August to raise money for scholarships. Years from now, kids not yet born will know her name and what she did.
Marie Conley used to hand out gummy bears to kids at the Mather. The last thing she gave one of those kids was his life.
And if they ever find the guts on Beacon Hill to pass a law to test elderly drivers, maybe they can call it Marie's Law.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com. 
