She spoke of the friendship and painful bond she shared with my father
Re “Kitty Dukakis, 1936-2025: An advocate for others who bravely battled personal tests” (Page A1, March 23): In 1978 my father, who had been widowed three years earlier, moved from Florida to Boston to be closer to his sons and grandchildren. After my mother died, my father became an alcoholic. My brother had a connection to then-governor Mike Dukakis and was able to find work for our father, a lifelong liberal Democrat, at the State House. That was how my father met Kitty.
Unbeknownst, at the time, to anyone in the family, my father and Kitty had something in common: an addiction. She confided her addiction to him years before she went public with it. She and Mike brought my father to many political events, especially if it involved seniors. Through Kitty’s friendship, my dad went through long periods of sobriety.
In July 1986, Kitty attended my father’s 70th birthday party and brought with her a proclamation from Mike declaring that day “Lewis Gaines Day in the Commonwealth.”
At my father’s memorial service in 1987, Kitty spoke of their friendship and their common bond. She said, that “while I was able to deal with my demons, although he tried, Lewis never did. Nonetheless, he had a huge heart and I loved him dearly.”
I am forever grateful for Kitty Dukakis and the Dukakis family and send them my sincerest condolences.
Peter Gaines
Chatham
The writer’s brother, Richard, was editor of The Boston Phoenix and co-author of a 1988 biography of Mike Dukakis.
I wrote, she called, and a decrepit playground was reborn
One afternoon in mid-1986 the phone rang in my Chelsea kitchen; it was Kitty Dukakis. I had written to her a week earlier about the possibility of her Program on Public Space Partnerships at the Kennedy School taking on a neighborhood problem: a decrepit nearby playground, where drug dealing had taken over. The dealers were in the park and the children were playing in the street.
She came out and looked around. When I pointed out that the park was clearly visible from the windows of the mayor’s office a half a block away, she didn’t say much. But not long thereafter a State Police cruiser appeared on the scene.
Students in landscape architecture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst got to work on a playground redesign with kid-friendly amenities, and the state awarded Chelsea a $240,000 grant to fund the improvements. A local church received a Gateway Cities grant to fund a supervised recreation program for young children. We handed out T-shirts with the message: “Bosson Park is a Wonderful Place to Play.”
All of this occurred largely over a two-year period when Mrs. Dukakis was reportedly struggling with personal issues as well as commitments related to her husband’s presidential campaign. But what our neighborhood saw was someone who showed up for us.
Kitty Dukakis was the real deal.
Barbara Donlon
Stoneham