If you were lucky enough to know Maggie Kennedy, you were lucky enough

A composite eulogy for Maggie Kennedy with input from friends from Rochester, Minnesota to Naples, Florida

Maggie was goodness personified.  She embodied kindness and gave all that she had to give. She fought for the disenfranchised.  Her sense of humor was refreshing and she made us laugh during the most difficult times in our lives.  Her laugh and her smile will ring in our minds forever!  Her voice of encouragement, wisdom, advice, and love will remain in our hearts, minds, and souls. 

Maggie was an angel on earth among us.  She left in a hurry with no chance to say "Good-Bye".   When we think of all the happiness she brought, we do not cry.

Above all else Maggie was Paul and Patricia’s daughter, Len’s wife of 37 years, Matt's and Katie’s mother, Patty’s sister, and Aunt Maggie to many.  “Mags” was Matt's and Katie's biggest and best advocate and Len was the love of her life. 

Maggie would tell us that her legacy is her children. She loved her family tremendously and always wanted the best and more for them.  When they were worried or hurt...she was worried or hurt!  Maggie loved Len, Matt and Katie unconditionally, had great stories about them, they were her heart.

Maggie was happy, funny and always helping other people.  Maggie was like a bright light.  You always knew she was in a room.  You saw her blond hair and her sparkling jewels and who could forget her outrageous and contagious laugh?  She was the essence of a glass half full! Maggie moved at 100 miles an hour all the time.  Maggie charmed everyone whether she knew them or not!

Maggie rejoiced in knowing people, their struggles, their achievements, everything about them.  She was always nurturing and positive.  She had a tremendous capacity to seek out new friends and make them feel welcome and included, whether it was the new girl in the neighborhood, the only black face at the high school bus stop, or the 90 year old swimmer at the beach condo.

Maggie was loving, caring, kind, giving, empathetic, joyous and inclusive.  She  had a wonderful way of embracing strangers and making you feel as if you had known her for your lifetime.   She had values and principals of RIGHT and WRONG and she stood by them. 

From childhood, Maggie had a love for the beach.  Maggie really couldn't get enough of it.  I can see her sitting looking at the horizon.  I can see her looking at the families especially the children.  Maggie became the surrogate mother to the young college students in a foreign land who were lifeguards at the beach community pool.  She wanted to be sure they were fed...and making out O.K. while in this country.  She was their advocate...and their listening ear....when needed.  She was safe.

Maggie had a passion for the welfare of children that transcended education, politics or economics.  As a professional educator, she had an innate talent for teaching.  She knew how to build a relationship with kids.  She knew a kid’s world.  She made the most troubled child feel comfortable with examples she would think up and made sure they felt some success with their new learning task.   She  helped kids grab success.

Her teaching talents were used on big people too -- mustering solid examples for teachers –- practical, sensible approaches they could use in the classroom.  Helping parents help their children was a natural for her.  She could relate well to parents and give them sensible examples and some tips to help their children practice at home.  In this way Maggie helped family members, the rich and the poor, participate in their child’s learning.

Maggie is the role model for us all.  Her life, in itself, is a lesson in true humanity.  And we must carry on that lesson.  In this era when people appear to be into “haves” or “have-nots”, “givers” or “takers”, Maggie was unwavering in that she would keep giving, no matter what.  She continued to dedicate her life to children, no matter where they came from or what their backgrounds.  To her they were children, and that was all that was important.  And just as she was loving and caring, she would fight with the spirit of a tigress when it came to protecting just one child.

Maggie was the best friend anyone could ever have, the most loving and supportive mother and wife.  She was a virtuous woman.  Maggie was the most devoted advocate of children.  Maggie was the ambassador of all that is good and just.  She had wisdom, strength, and courage and exemplified grace in challenging times.  She was the woman than we should all strive to emulate.

ALL OF US.....LUCKY ENOUGH TO CALL MAGGIE OUR FRIEND are probably saying the very same thing about her.  She had a way of embracing you in that fashion that you knew she was your friend for life.

One phrase that we learned from Maggie was "going 'bye-byes' in the 'bye-bye' car."  She often used it as we talked about what person in power was on their way out of that position as in "So and So" is going 'bye-byes' in the 'bye-bye' car."  Using the phase more positively, however, when I picture Maggie leaving all of us behind, I see her blond hair blowing and her tan arm waving from the passenger's seat of the 'bye-bye' car and the good Lord is driving.

Though she is not immediately with us in person for this journey called life, it may be that she has been placed in a more important role as a guardian, overseer or proctor of that passion for life she instilled in us.  She may not be here, but now, she can finally do for real what we always suspected she was doing as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and colleague: Being in two places at one time.

I will close with a classic poem that a very intelligent friend included as part of her eulogy to Maggie Kennedy: 

Because I could not stop for death

Emily Dickenson

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove

At recess, in the ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;

The dews grew quivering and chill,

For only gossamer my gown,

My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.