I was thinking about the late Sen. Edward Kennedy recently. My granddaughter and I were standing in line at the grocery, and all around us were memorial issues of weekly magazines with his picture on the cover.

I cried when I heard he had died, which I thought was a little odd. I don't usually cry when people I’ve never met die. But as I thought about it, I realized he has probably done more to affect my life and my family than many of the people I have actually known.

My husband was disabled eighteen years ago and cannot walk unaided. There are many ways life becomes more difficult when you are disabled…and not having access to all of life's joys is a big one.

Every time I’m out and about having fun with my husband and push his wheelchair up a ramp to enter a public building, I think of Ted Kennedy and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Kennedy’s work has made our lives easier and more joyful.

When my husband became disabled, the insurance supplied by his former employer was severely decreased. He went on Medicare, due to the disability, so he had great government-supplied coverage. But my coverage, part of the employee benefit plan, was equally decreased. I don't think many Americans realize how these things work.
This is one of the reasons Ted Kennedy worked so hard for COBRA, and for insurance reform.

COBRA allowed me to pay for several more months of insurance until I could find a way to work something else out. Mostly, we don't think about being disabled in mid life, or how it creates waves that change many of the things we take for granted in America. Ted Kennedy did. 

I played tennis with my 14-year-old granddaughter recently. She’s a great player and was SO excited about trying out for her high school tennis team. I think back to my high school years and how women’s sports were just not on the radar screen. Well, come to think of it, when I was I high school maybe the radar wasn't there either!

In any event, Title IX made it possible for both women and men to reap all the benefits that sports in high school and college can provide. Ted Kennedy's support of equal opportunity, regardless of gender, set my granddaughter up to take it for granted that she has the right to try out for her high school's woman's tennis team. I think Sen. Kennedy would have had a big chuckle when this excited young woman, full of confidence and power, 'wiped up the court' with her Grandma.

Ted Kennedy's hard work, empathy, and determination has given my husband a better life, helped me during a very difficult time, and laid down the path for my grandchildren to follow their desires and use their strengths, regardless of gender.

I explained all of this to my granddaughter while we were waiting in the line at the grocery. I let her know how much I hope she, along with all of us, follow Ted Kennedy's lead and work to make life better for all Americans...and for everyone else too.

We will have a stronger country and a stronger world when everyone has decent medical care, when equal opportunity is available to everyone, and when we all have a chance to develop our innate potentials. 

Learn more about me at www.teenacahill.com. To hear my Internet radio show, click here!    
                                          
This information is for educational and informational use only, and is not meant as a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.  Always seek the advice of a psychologist or other qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a mental problem or disorder, or medical condition.