Kennedy took public's battles to heart

— -- Evelyne Milorin says Edward Kennedy gave her back her life.

After 15 months of fruitless appeals to elected officials to help her autistic son after he lost government benefits at age 21, the Haitian immigrant wrote to her senator, "the only one who can understand what it takes to raise a child with disabilities."

Within three weeks, Kennedy, whose sister Rosemary was mentally disabled, replied and set his staff to work. They secured vocational and life skills training for Reggie that allowed a young man who once went six years without speaking to hold a job, rent an apartment and live on his own at age 37. And that allowed his mother to finally earn a college degree last year at 58.

"I have my life back, and my son is no longer under my care 24 hours a day," says the Medford, Mass., community organizer. "He made my dream come true."

The "lion of the Senate" never roared about his work for Milorin. Or for the families of 9/11 victims from Massachusetts whom Kennedy phoned as the World Trade Center still smoldered. Or Washington, D.C.'s Brent Elementary School, where he mentored students every week for more than a decade. Yet as the rich and famous gathered to pay tribute Friday, those with lesser-known names recalled how he touched their lives, too.

"He was always reaching out," says Democratic strategist Donna Brazile. Kennedy called her after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes of her family in Louisiana four years ago.

"He offered to use contacts that he had through (wife) Vicki's family to help me find my folks missing after the storm and to help with relocation," she says. "He always wanted to give back."

Kennedy wrote a letter to Andrea Casanova after her daughter was killed by a repeat sex offender in 2002. The senator was "constantly with us" as she and her husband started a foundation and worked on sex-offender legislation.

"He's bigger than life," says Casanova, tearing up as she realizes he is gone. "He understood, having all the tragedies in his life … how it can impact you and how you want to really strive to do something about it."