Family and friends quietly mark anniversary of Kennedy’s death
WORCESTER — Edward M. Kennedy’s family and friends marked the first anniversary of his death yesterday by celebrating a quiet Mass at his Cape Cod church and by renaming a Worcester health center in his honor.
The senator’s son, Edward Jr., said renaming the Great Brook Valley Health Center in Worcester the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center was a fitting tribute to his father’s lifelong commitment to expanding access to health care.
“I wanted to do something that would highlight an aspect of his life or a cause that he really believed in, as opposed to dwelling on the melancholy and the sadness of today,’’ he said in an interview. “Instead of a sad day, it really is going to be a great moment in celebration of my father.’’
At the health center, staff members, patients, and political dignitaries observed a moment of silence and then joined the senator’s son in a rousing rendition of “This Land is Your Land,’’ a Kennedy favorite. They also watched a video message the senator recorded for the health center’s 25th anniversary more than a decade ago.
“We’ve had some good senators, but we’ve never had one like him,’’ said Angel P. Hampton, a member of the health center board. “When the government was going to take away funding, he went to bat for us.’’
Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray recalled the senator’s compassion and sense of humor. When Murray’s first child was born, he said, the senator sent him a diaper adorned with shamrocks and the message, “For Irish mist.’’
The Kennedys’ day began with a Mass in the senator’s memory at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville. The Rev. Mark R. Hession, who delivered the homily at the senator’s funeral in Mission Hill last August, was the officiant.
“I can’t believe that a year has passed, and I’m not one to fixate on anniversaries,’’ Kennedy Jr. said. “I think about him all the time and that hasn’t changed. And in my family, we’re not big on celebrating deaths.’’
The family, he said, is focused on construction of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, in Dorchester.
Kennedy Jr., a lawyer who lives in Connecticut, said he also thinks about becoming the next member of his family to run for office.
“I’ve thought about that, not as a way to continue to my father’s legacy, because that would be a very difficult thing to do because my father was such a legislative giant,’’ he said. “It would be in my own time and in my own way, as an activist for people with disabilities and somebody who’s a health care expert.’’
He added, “I don’t know what my future will hold, but I come from a tradition of public service and we’ll have to see where that takes me. I think politics is exciting. I saw how much gratification my father got out of it. He thought being a senator for Massachusetts was the greatest honor in the world.’’
June Wu can be reached at jwu@globe.com. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 
