Nobody should live alone.
So, it is a good thing that Gov. Maura Healey, 52, the state’s first gay governor, has moved into the Arlington home of her partner Joanna Lydgate, 42 the mother of two.
It is important for a person to have a stable home life.
Apparently, Healey moved in after Lydgate’s husband moved out. Lydgate owns the $1 million four-bedroom single family home.
But it is hard to gather specifics since Healey has gone to great lengths to keep her private life private.
Which is understandable, but which is hard to accomplish if you are a public official, especially the governor.
While the relationship is not new—the pair have been in a relationship for two years—Healey’s move from her apartment in Cambridge’s Porter Square to Arlington is news, even though the five-line story was buried in last Friday’s Boston Globe.
Healey reportedly restarted her relationship with Lydgate following her breakup with her former partner, a Massachusetts appeals court judge. The pair shared a condo in Charlestown when Healey was attorney general.
After the breakup Healy, running for governor, moved to the South End, then to Cambridge and now to Arlington.
Massachusetts, unlike other states, has no governor’s mansion, but it does provide an annual housing allowance of $65,000 to go along with a salary of $222,000.
Healey will presumably use the housing allowance toward her new home.
Lydgate, an attorney who once worked for Healey when Healey was attorney general, apparently finalized her divorce from her husband, who has remained unnamed, but supportive of the relationship.
In a previous fawning Globe story that ran after Healey was inaugurated as governor and the relationship revealed, the unnamed husband was quoted saying he was fine with the arrangement and the life they all have built together.
“Maura is part of our family,” he said, “To our kids, she is just this person who has been in their lives since they were very young, and I am really glad they have her as a role model, a friend, and a caregiver.” The children are nine and eleven.
While both Healey and Lydgate are now single and living together, it is not far-fetched to point out that a marriage could be in the works.
Not only was Massachusetts a trailblazer when it came to legalizing same sex marriages, it could also be the first state to host a State House wedding between a gay governor and her partner.
Before progressives go giddy over that, there are a lot of problems to consider with the governor’s move to suburbia.
As governor Healey is provided State Police protection around the clock. She travels in a huge, gas-guzzling black SUV Ford Expedition or two which will be traversing the neighborhood.
One problem in this new life is the privacy and protection of the two children.
Other problems include the security and the privacy of neighbors, not to mention increased traffic on a suburban street of family homes.
Then there are the gawkers who will conduct drive-bys or the horde of tourists stopping by to take selfies once the address becomes known, as it will be.
More importantly will be the demonstrators who could descend on the neighborhood to hound Healey the way they hounded Boston Mayor Michell Wu at her home in Roslindale or former Gov. Charlie Baker outside his home in Swampscott.
Things got so bad that Wu got an ordinance passed barring COVID protestors from demonstrating outside her home between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. Boston police arrested five people on the first day the ordinance went into effect.
Things were just as bad, or worse, for Charlie Baker in Swampscott. One time a handful of climate change demonstrators were arrested after chaining themselves to a large boat in front of Baker house while his wife looked on.
Another time the cops arrested a man after he broke into Baker’s house while Baker and his daughter were inside, and a trooper parked out front.
Nobody should live alone. Nobody should be hounded either. Hopefully Lydgate has understanding neighbors.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
