Menino speaking at the Reggie Lewis Center in 2013. Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons.
On Nov. 3, 2014, the residents of Massachusetts bid farewell to Boston’s longest serving mayor, Thomas Menino, at Most Precious Blood Church, the parish where the former mayor was baptized and attended grammar school many years ago. The 53rd mayo of Boston, Menino completed his service the same year that he had passed away.
Those who spoke at the funeral fondly recognized Menino’s legacy of bringing Boston together and his irreplaceable leadership at the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings. He was known as a man who presented himself as not the mayor of Boston, but a man of Boston. A life-long resident of Hyde Park, Menino was a staple in the city’s political system, being a city council member before he was mayor.
“Today we come together to cel- ebrate a great man, a history-making mayor, and a life of accomplishment– Thomas Michael Menino, the relentless, the big-hearted, the people-loving urban mechanic has gone to fix potholes in heaven,” stated current mayor Martin Walsh at Menino’s funeral.
“Tom Menino saw the core of people and believed in them … Tom Menino believed in underdogs,” added Walsh regarding Menino’s optimistic mindset.
A selfless and caring man, Menino was diagnosed with an unknown and advanced form of cancer that traveled to his liver and lymph nodes. On Oct. 23, 2014 he announced that he would suspend his cancer treatments in order to spend more time with family in his final days. A week later, he had succumbed to the brawn of the disease and passed away on Oct. 30, 2014.
A handful of the funeral attendants were Bill Clinton, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Menino’s former chief of staff, Mitchell B. Weiss, Menino’s family, and Governor Deval Patrick.
Patrick, who was a close friend of Menino, spoke at the beginning of the mass and closed his speech thanking Menino “for being [his] friend, for making time for the meek as well as the mighty, for
coaching this newcomer as [he had] so many others, and for the exceptional example of honorable public service not just as the job [he] did, but the man [he was]. May God rest [his] soul and give peace and comfort to us all.”
