In the late summer of 2005, my stepfather was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer and the same type that Senator Kennedy is currently fighting. He was a role model for not just me, but for my mother, my sister, his parents, and virtually all those lucky enough to meet and know him throughout his life. Throughout the long, extremely difficult treatment that took place over the many months to follow, he never complained once. Never once. For those who do not know, brain cancer is an incredibly debilitating disease, as I'm sure you all can imagine; due to the location of my stepfather's tumor, skills like walking and speaking - things we take for granted in our everyday lives - quickly diminished before our eyes. Without rehashing the horrible details, everyone understood he was in tremendous pain. But he never complained once.
Instead, his only worry was how we - me, my sister, and my mother - would fare, always reassuring us that "everything would be OK." Though his motor skills may have deteriorated, his smile never did. Even in the midst of his recovery from intense treatment, he constantly wanted to go back to work at the post office as a letter carrier - he loved his job, his colleagues, and the people he brought mail to everyday right up until his passing in February 2006.
Watching the convention earlier tonight, I saw in Senator Ted Kennedy what I saw in my beloved stepfather - resilience, strength, courage, and an unbreakable moral fiber. Though our liberal lion appeared to be in fine form, it is likely that everything from walking to the podium to giving the roaring, uplifting speech he gave took a toll on his body. Likewise, even if it did not take an iota away from the effectiveness and power of the moment and speech, some words and sentences were spoken with obvious difficulty. The man, our senator - one of, if not the greatest ever - though in great spirits, was clearly in pain.
His doctors advised him not to attend, as I'm sure many in his family did. But the aforementioned unbreakable moral fiber would not let him miss this historic event. Kennedy, one of the biggest and earliest major backers of Barack Obama in the primaries, was not going to pass up an opportunity to help sow the seeds of unity among Democrats. Of all people, he knows the importance of this election and what's at stake, and not even his own health would stop him from putting country first. I found it fitting and moving that he used many of the same phrases from speeches of years and decades past - a true testament to how much a visionary he has been, perhaps the greatest ever. From health care being a right, not a privilege to Medicare to Iraq, he has been right about virtually every single major issue of the past four decades. He made it tonight to speak to us in hopes of helping realize the very things he has fought for, for us, with the election of Obama in November.
The most powerful moment, for me at least, was his pledge to be on the Senate floor come January. Like my stepfather, he truly is a hero that we, and all Democrats and Americans, can and should be proud of to call our senator.