Meghan McCain on Saturday delivered a moving eulogy at Washington National Cathedral for her father, the late Senator John McCain.
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“I am here before you today saying the words I have never wanted to say,” said McCain. “Giving the speech I’ve never wanted to give. Feeling the loss I have never wanted to feel. My father is gone. John Sidney McCain III was many things. He was a sailor, he was an aviator, he was a husband, he was a warrior, he was a prisoner, hero, congressman, senator, a nominee for the president of the United States. These are all of the titles and the roles of a life that has been well lived. They not the greatest of his titles, nor the most important of his roles.”
“My father was a great man,” she said. “He was a great warrior. He was a great American. I admired him for all of these things. But I love him because he was a great father.”
McCain’s eulogy juxtaposed her father’s trials, triumphs and life of service with the great father he was to her.
“Today I want to share with you where I found out who John McCain truly was,” she said. “It wasn’t in the Hanoi Hilton. It wasn’t in the cockpit of a fast and lethal fighter jet. It wasn’t on the high seas or on the campaign trail. John McCain was in all of those places but the best of him was somewhere else. The best of John McCain, the greatest of his titles and the most important of his roles was as a father.”
“I know who he was. I know what defined him. I got to see it every single day of my blessed life. John McCain is not defined by prison, by the Navy, by the senate, by the Republican Party or by any single one of the deeds in his absolutely extraordinary life. John McCain was defined by love.”