Posted on 07/07/2004 2:45:46 PM PDT by Jenya
Running for his son: Teen's death changed Edwards' life
Almost everything John and Elizabeth Edwards have done since the death of their 16-year-old son has been in memory of Wade or influenced by his tragic loss - even the meteoric political career John Edwards [related, bio] began shortly afterward.
Friends have said the importance of Wade's death in the Edwardses' lives cannot be overestimated. John Edwards coached daughter Catharine and Wade in soccer and basketball. In 1995, John and Wade climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania together - the son helping the altitude-sick father make it to the summit. Wade worked at his father's law practice, and wrote a national prize-winning essay about his dream of becoming a lawyer in partnership with his dad.
``There is no adequate way I can express the pride I felt for my son,'' Edwards has written.
All of it ended in April 1996. Wade and a friend were driving to the family's beach house near Wilmington, N.C., when their Jeep veered and rolled over, apparently shoved by a gust of wind for which Wade overcorrected. There was no sign of alcohol or speeding, and Wade was wearing a seatbelt, but he was dead at the scene. Friends have said Edwards, overcome with grief, stopped working for months. Wade's room was untouched for at least two years, even the half-finished bottle of Gatorade on his bedside table.
``You just can't appreciate the pain parents feel until it happens to you,'' David Kirby, Edwards' law partner, told the Raleigh News & Observer.
But it was during this time that, in addition to initiating numerous memorial projects, Edwards decided to pursue his dream of a political career, reportedly deciding life is too short to postpone one's dreams.
Over Wade's grave is a 10-foot sculpture of an angel, cradling a figure that bears the boy's likeness. On the grounds of Broughton High School in Raleigh, the Edwardses built a 120-foot-long sculpture of a comet, with 70 handprints of his classmates. They created a writing contest and endowed a chair at the University of North Carolina law school in his name. They also founded the nonprofit Wade Edwards Learning Lab, an after-school computer center across the street from Wade's school.
Then, at age 48, Elizabeth Edwards decided to have more children with the aid of fertility drugs - Emma Claire in 1998 and in 2000, when Elizabeth was 50, John Atticus. Atticus was the name Wade used in high school Latin class.
Edwards has avoided discussing his son's death and has never allowed it to be used as a campaign theme. But friends have said the tragedy was behind his decision to challenge Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth in 1998, his first and only campaign before running for president and now vice president in the current election cycle. He had been mulling politics for years, and Wade had urged him to run.
``It was something Wade wanted him to do,'' Elizabeth Edwards told the News & Observer.
..... until now.
This is just plain sick.
Why don't they do a Wellstone-type rally for the dead kid?
Why are Democrats so morbid? Even about their own dead?
Exactly. Expect another "Al Gore moment," with Edwards jerking every tear he can with some maudlin tale about his son's life, or, worse, him standing over his son as he died.
His son never smoked, did he?
Exactly.
This is really crass, but did he sue Jeep?
That sounds pretty tasteful.
The cop said it was just another case of inexperienced driver error.
Once the car came to a rest, my son turned off the ignition and climbed out the window. He was standing by the side of the road when the police arrived and asked where the driver's body might be.
The difference in outcomes is a direct consequence of my having made sure my son had a safe car with titanium ribs in the roof. Apparantly Edwards didn't care what his kid was driving and it ended up killing him.
The lesson is parents should become more involved in their children's lives.
Y'all gimme that sympathy vote, hear?
Babwa Wawa will ask Edwards about his dead son, and Edwards will cry two taseful, well-planned tears.
What a horrible tragedy...
Grab your barf bag and keep talking about the media bias. Our only defense will be in exposing the bias. We can't compete with their media power.
As a mother, my heart goes out to the Edwards family on their loss.
That said, to make this a campaign issue would be beyond low. If the family has not discussed this tragedy prior to this election, it should not be discussed now.
A terrible shame, yes, but some would say that doing everything for a deceased child is dysfunctional.
I'm glad your son wasn't hurt, but to suggest Edwards did not care enough about his own child is disgusting.
This was a tragedy no family should have to suffer. I am sure they miss their son every single day. It is a terrible thing to outlive a child.
I couldn't agree with you more.
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