By Ramón Hernández

In spite of a unique awkward situation, Edward Moore Kennedy once gave me the opportunity of the lifetime when he invited me to be his personal photographer on two separate occasions.

Last night I watched everyone from President Obama, Vice President Biden, Caroline Kennedy and others recounted their relationship with Ted Kennedy and I couldn’t help but feel so privileged to be – in a roundabout way – in their company.

Unlike most of the elite VIPs I was watching, I was born and reared in one of the poorest barrios in San Antonio’s west side and the closest I had gotten to an a Kennedy is when I was a student at George W. Brackenridge High School and I went to see John F. Kennedy give a speech in front of the Alamo. Afterwards, as he pressed the flesh with the crowd, I was also one of the lucky few to shake his hand, but there is no photograph to prove this.

Upon graduation, in 1960, I joined the U.S. Navy because the recruiter promised I’d see the world. However, I didn’t think he would really live up to his hype. By June 1966, this (then) kid who had never traveled further than Indian Creek Boy Scout Camp in Kerrville had gone from the West coast to the East coast and on up to Newfoundland, the Azores, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Greece, Egypt and Ethiopia, where I got married and my son was born.

The day we left East Africa and upon arriving at the airport, we discovered we would be flying with Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel to Beirut, Lebanon and Athens, Greece. The former U.S. Attorney General was very polite and gracious as he stepped out of the first class section and walked down the airplane aisle shaking hands, making small talk with each passenger and autographing plane tickets. The mother of my children was pregnant with our second child, Susie, and when we stopped for a layover in Beirut, he took my son Tony and carried him for a while as I shot some 8mm movies of this historical moment in our lives.

My next assignments took me to Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Japan and vacation in Hong Kong before being transferred to Washington, D.C. in 1972. There, during my spare time, I covered the Watergate Hearing and attended many political functions with U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentson, U.S. Congressman Henry B. González, plus U.S. Senators Edmund Muskie, George McGovern, Henry “Scoop” Jackson plus countless others. However, Ted Kennedy was at none of these functions and I was determined to meet him.

One day, I went to the Old Senate Building and hung around outside his office waiting for him to either step out or walk in when I was approached by security. They had been watching me on their surveillance cameras and I guess I looked suspicious. When they asked what I was doing there, I innocently said that I wanted to get a ‘shot’ of Sen. Kennedy – wrong choice of words.

Before I knew it, I was escorted off and interrogated. To make a long story short, they verified I was a career U.S. serviceman and because I had a Top Secret clearance and three Good Conduct Medals, they not only took me back to Sen. Kennedy’s office, but I also got to meet him and he allowed me to photograph each space within his office.

After some small talk, he dropped the most surprising bombshell on me when he asked if I was free on the morning of November 22nd. This is the day that each year, he and some of the Kennedy clan go to visit the graves of his two brothers in Arlington National Cemetery at 6 a.m. before it opens to the public.

Needless to say, I showed up 30 minutes early and when the Kennedy entourage arrived, I walked in with the family. First he laid flowers next to the Eternal Flame on John F. Kennedy’s grave and silently said a prayer. Then he walked over to Bobby’s grave and with Bobby’s wife Ethel, laid flowers in front of his single white cross.

After that I got to see Ted Kennedy a few more times and the following year, I was, again, invited to accompany the family, including his kids and wife Joan, to Arlington Cemetery. What an honor, I told myself in disbelief. By now he trusted me so much that he turned his back to me and walked off with no fear that I would pull out a concealed weapon and assassinate him. The proof is in the photograph I purposely took to illustrate this point.

The only thing that haunted me for a long time is that after I shook John Kennedy’s hand, he was assassinated in 1963. After I shook Robert Kennedy’s hand, he was assassinated in 1968. After I shook the hand of Governor George Wallace, he was shot in 1972; and after I shook the hand of President Richard Nixon, he was impeached. Years later, after I interviewed President Ronald Reagan and shook his hand, he was shot a month later by John Hinckley Jr.

For years, I felt paranoid and like a jinx for Presidents and politicians running for the office of President, but thanks to Ted, who lived live to the fullest, I realize this was all a coincidence.

I saw Ted Kennedy two more times when he was running for President in 1979 and although he was surrounded by security to ward off crowds, he told them to let me walk by his side as he asked about my family. And as many testified, he was not about himself.

Ted Kennedy genuinely cared for and took interest in people no matter what color, what ethnic group, what level of education, what social status, what income bracket, what walk of life and regardless of their humble origins.

Had that been the case, I would not have been privy to these incredible memories of this great human being.