Farewell, my friend.

In 2007, I tripped on the edge of a rug, fell and broke my shoulder. Not a bad break, mind you, but once I was on the mend I needed PT. I tried PT at Mass General Hospital, but - as my husband had warned me - they were useless. After a couple of months, all I could do was raise my arm in what looked like a Nazi salute. Since I have no call at all to give a Nazi salute, I didn't feel healed in the least.

My sister Kath suggested I try Kennedy Brothers PT. She had been treated by Jake Kennedy for a running injury, and thought I would like Jake and his genius and eccentric PT practice. 

Of course I did.

Jake was a genius healer. After he examined me, I said "It sounds like I wasted three months at MGH." And he answered, "You did." But he assured me that he would take care of me. A man of his word!

After I recovered full range of motion (since lost, but that's another story...), I figured that, if I had all this time to hang around Kennedy Brothers PT getting healed, I had time to work out. So I joined the KBPT gym, which was basically the PT clinic. You paid a nominal amount and got to use the equipment - plus bug Jake and his assistants if you had a minor ailment you wanted advice on.

The first Christmas I was gymming at KBPT, Jake asked if I'd mind running some checks to the bank for his charity, Christmas in the City. Founded by Jake and his wife Sparky in 1989, CITC (among other things) runs a blowout holiday party for 6,000 Boston area folks living in shelter situations. And gives out toys to thousands of families in need but not experiencing homelessness.

I, of course, said 'yes'. How hard could it be to bring a couple of checks to the bank?

It, of course, got a lot more involved than that. And I got a lot more involved.

(Jake never said 'no' to anyone who asked him for help. It was the least we could all do to return the favor.)

Over the years, I've done a variety of volunteer things for Christmas in the City, both year-round (website content, FB) and holiday event related. I'm a relative newbie. Many of the volunteers - and CITC is a 100% volunteer organization (and there are thousands of them) - have been with Jake and Sparky since the first party they ran in 1989. That party was attended by 165 people. As I said, last year, we hosted around 6,000. (This year, we're not holding our events thanks to COVID, but we're doing a pared down version, bringing gifts and meals to a number of the smaller shelters.)

The party is a really big deal around here. The Mayor of Boston always comes. Elizabeth Warren didn't make it last year because she was on the campaign trail, but she's usually there. Charlie Baker, the governor, has come. It makes all the news - print and TV. Everyone drawn in by the cause - and by Jake's charisma.

It's hard to explain Jake Kennedy to someone who's never met him. A neighbor of his recently told Sparky that Jake is equal parts Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and Peter Pan. That's a great description, but there's something missing. Oh, yes, George Carlin.

Jake was very brilliant at his work. As a physical therapist he had a true genius as a healer. He was also a brilliant mentor to the many young PT professionals he worked with. He was just plain brilliant in general, with an encyclopedic mind for seemingly everything large and small. He was a serious student of politics and history, but he also knew that the Murmaids sang "Popsicles, Icicles." 

Jake was a tremendous athlete. In his younger days, a rugby player. Throughout his life, a runner. He had run 37 consecutive Boston Marathons. This year would have been his 38th.

He was an adventurer, who had traveled all over the place, enjoying every moment of his life.

He was colossally generous and kind. (C.f., Christmas in the City.) But he was also spectacularly funny. Spontaneous, irreverent, hilarious.

Oh, and he always managed to drive everyone around him absolutely stark-raving nuts half the time.

One of his things was giving people nicknames. Mine was Motorious, Moto for short. 

ALS runs in Jake's family. His father died of it, as did a younger brother at age 31. Another brother has it, but is doing pretty well with his treatment, and many years into his diagnosis is still mobile and able to speak. (He recently rode his bike 26.2 miles along the Boston Marathon route.) But Jake ended up with the "bad" version of ALS, bulbar ALS, and it moved in on him rapidly. He was diagnosed just a year ago. (Given how god-awful ALS is anyway, it's hard to believe there's actually a bad version of it.)

I've been fortunate to know a lot of good people in my life, but Jake's right up there.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to call him my friend.

My heart goes out to Sparky and their four kids. To his extended family. Such a profound loss...

And that heart, like the hearts of a lot of folks people who knew and loved Jake, are broken. 

The world is a lesser place without this great and good man in it - less joyful, less kind - but it's a more magnificent place because we had Jake in it for 65 years. His legacy goes on through his wonderful family and through Christmas in the City.

Farewell, my friend. We won't be seeing the likes of you again anytime soon.

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And because I needed a good cry, here's the Chieftains doing the "Limerick Lament."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0iQunb9KBs

The organist played this at my husband's memorial service. Hauntingly beautiful...