Worst of 2009 -- Losing People

This is not a happy post. I just read Newsweek and saw their list of people who we lost this year. I have my own list, two I never met, and one who meant the world to me.

1. My nephew. January 11, 2009. A car accident took his life. Make sure your car has airbags. He was only 22, in the prime of his life, and happy. There are some things that you never get over. We go on, we remember him, but we can't forget. RFK once misquoted Aeschylus as such:

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

2. Senator Edward Kennedy. August 25, 2009. My Irish grandfather. He taught us that politics is primarily to help people. His epic quote:

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

3. Frank McCourt. July 19, 2009. My other Irish grandfather. He taught me what it meant to be Irish; he taught me just how Irish I had been and would always be. It is because of him, for instance, I describe my Irish luck and my Irish soul. McCourt once gave a graduation speech at UCLA, in 1998, that I attended. It was the humanities graduation, I believe. I wish I had gone home and written out his entire speech, it was simply marvelous. Without YouTube in those days, it appears to be lost for the ages/not Google-able. I remember he said that it wasn't about the title or the paycheck, but to feel like you'd done good in the world everyday that made a job worth doing.

Without these three Irish men, the world is a darker place for me.