[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 13, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14279-S14280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                      100TH BIRTHDAY OF GRACE DODD

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, November 9, 2007, was a very special 
day for me and my whole family. On that day, my mother, Grace Dodd, 
would have turned 100 years old. She has been gone for many, many years 
now; but not a day goes by without her memory. I would like to take 
this chance to call back those memories and speak about what made her 
so special.
  I have never known a more infectious optimist. More than anything, 
that is what comes back: her unshakeable confidence that no matter how 
bad the problem, she could fix it; her lifelong dedication to the 
bright side; a smile that could turn even the grumpiest person 
pleasant.

[[Page S14280]]

  Some kinds of optimism are bought cheaply: they come from sheltering 
yourself from the world. But the much more valuable, much more lasting 
kind of optimism comes from embracing the world--and that was my 
mother's kind. She was a dedicated Latin student, a bundle of energy, a 
basketball star in high school and at Trinity College in Washington, 
DC. Her nickname--``the adhesive guard''--testifies, I think, to her 
persistence on the court and everywhere else.
  Born Mary Grace Murphy, she married my father Tom Dodd in 1934, loved 
him deeply, and gave him six children, of which I was the second-to-
last. When my father left home to serve as a prosecutor at the 
Nuremberg Trials in 1945, he wrote home to his ``dearest Grace'' every 
day--sometimes twice a day. His letters are filled with descriptions of 
the Nazi war criminals, ravaged, postwar Germany, growing conflict 
between the Americans and the Russians; but above all, they are filled 
with how much he missed his Grace. Being away from her, he wrote, was 
the hardest thing he had to do.
  I can't help thinking that my mother had an even harder job--raising 
all of us! But as full as her hands were, raising four boys and two 
girls, she found time to give herself fully to her community, as well. 
She served on the local school board, was an early advocate for public 
kindergarten, and wrote a column in the Hartford newspaper. And with 
all that, she still had time left over to read avidly, travel widely, 
and study Spanish.
  But my sister Martha said that her greatest talent was something much 
simpler, something that I think was at the root of everything else in 
her full life: the ability to take a walk. Not a modern, calorie-
burning power-walk; but simply the skill for consciously forgetting the 
turmoil and bustle of life and taking time to reflect. My mother loved 
walks--and I think that they are what kept her smile bright and her 
optimism undimmed for so many years.
  I know a great story about that optimism. When I moved back to 
Connecticut after graduating law school, the driver of the moving van 
had a hard time finding my new house. My mother was on hand to make 
sure everything was going smoothly, and as the driver got angrier and 
angrier, she finally climbed into the cab and said, ``I'll show you 
exactly where it is.'' As they drove into the dark, she kept insisting, 
``I can just see it! I can just see it!''--for 4 miles. But she knew 
exactly where they were going, she calmed the driver's nerves, and she 
got him there, just as she promised.
  Grace Dodd did the same for all of us. Whenever times were tough and 
the road ahead of us seemed dark, there she was by our side, saying, 
``I can just see it!'' What we are, we owe to her; and on her 100th 
birthday, the best words we say in response are, ``Thank you.''

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