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Caroline Kennedy is highlighting Tatiana Schlossberg.
Five months after the environmental journalist died at 35 following a battle with a rare blood cancer, the former U.S. ambassador—and eldest of President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy's two kids—paid tribute to her daughter in an emotional reflection about the Kennedy family legacy.
"Caroline spoke at the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award event held at the late president's library on May 31. "My father inspired a generation, and now it's our turn to serve, to be active citizens and courageous leaders in any way we can." "The Library Foundation has been successful thanks to its extraordinary leaders."
"This year, we even have new family members here," the 68-year-old added, mentioning Tatiana's in-laws Garrett and Mary Moran. "Most of all, we remember Tatiana, who served on the board of this library and represented everything my parents stood for in her beautiful, amazing, and too-short life."
Indeed, the environmental journalist was a member of the Profile in Courage Award Committee alongside little brother Jack Schlossberg, 33, which honored former U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell with the trophy this year.
"Politics is a family endeavor," Caroline—also mom to daughter Rose Schlossberg, 37, with husband Edwin Schlossberg—said during her speech. "I am so grateful to the members of my family who are here tonight and whose support throughout the years has kept my father's spirit alive and made this institution a living memorial."
Tatiana Kennedy, the mother of Edwin, 4, and Josephine, 2, with husband George Moran, died on December 30.
Tatiana revealed shortly before her death that she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which she confirmed was deadly. And through her medical journey, her loved ones were always by her side.
"My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half," she wrote in her November essay published in The New Yorker. "They have held my hand unwaveringly while I have suffered, attempting not to show their pain and sadness in order to shield me from it. "This has been a wonderful gift, even if I feel their pain every day."
She also reflected on her own grief following the diagnosis.
"For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry," she admitted. "Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family's life, and there's nothing I can do to stop it."
Finally, she understood the importance of focusing on what truly mattered at the end of her life.
"Mostly, I try to live and be with them now," she said. "But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go."
