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.
If Wade wasn't experienced enough to handle his jeep when a hard gust of wind hit it, his parents shouldn't have allowed him to drive it.
Personally, I have a problem with "pain and suffering" awards. The courts put a price tag on human life....someone get's a million bucks for the loss of their loved one; someone else with a slicker lawyer and a deeper pocket gets $23 million; in another case, the value of life is dirt cheap (just look at abortion). Where's the justice in any of this?
I can't accept that as a cause for the crash. First, if their is anything to the wind aspect, it's because the Jeep's front suspension was out of alignment. Second the boy didn't know how to drive. Edwards didn't bother to note his sons lack of driving skills, but he still gave him the Jeep and apparently didn't bother with making sure it was roadworthy.
" John Edwards became a millionaire by cashing in on other people's accidents. None of those doctors meant for a baby to be born with problems. It happens sometimes. It is very sad. But John Edwards is part of a large and powerful group who want to make people pay damages, even when it was an accident."
That's right. He notes and cashes in on the tragedy's of others, then fails within his own sphere. He still wants to be king, because he knows better of course.
LOL
That would be a real change in the looks of 'wives in the White House.
Mrs Edwards - the frumpy dowager and Mrs sKerry who always looks like an unmade bed!!
Forgive me expressing my personal opinion. I usually never comment on someone's looks - or lack thereof.
In this case - they are very wealthy women and know that their husband's are dying to be President.
I would think that the least they could do would be to look the part since they are willingly going along with the program.
Yeah, I noticed the rouge (or is it "ruse"?) yesterday. What a freak. If this guy wins, we are through as a nation!
Absolutely.
We're finished.
His SCOTUS will see to that.
The NY Post story I excerpted above mentioned the Cherokee "drifting" into the median (it was an SUV, after all, so it had a mind of its own) and flipping on a gusty day. My guess is careless driving, not the wind, was the main factor in the crash.
Did the friend live?
That house says it all! You can see the guy is in mourning over that poor little girl.
Al Gore's sister, the Wellstone funerally, and now Edwards' son come to mind but they're all on the same side. I may have easily missed one along the way but I can't recall a Republican doing anything similar. Can you cite an example?
Get a grip. Or at least contact Tipper Gore for some anti-depressants. She's telling her surviving children that they don't amount to jack in terms of happiness in their family?!!! What kind of dysfunctional monster is this woman?! I don't discount that losing a child creates a hole that can never completely be filled. But she's being melodramatic to the level of sickness here.
Both parties? I am trying to think of a Republican doing it. The only family I know of that suffered that kind of loss was the Bushes with Robin. Yes, we know about it--but only reluctantly from the family. The media reported it because it is a matter of record. My observation is the Bush family has made modest comment on the issue and declined to elaborate. Barbara did say she felt George W. felt he had to console her and she didn't want him to feel burdened with assuaging her grief so she insisted he go about his business as a kid doing kid things, and that's about all I know. Oh, and George the elder and Barbara have their final resting places set aside at the presidential library and Barbara did say Robin is there. All this in response to specific questions--not a subject that I have ever seen them broach themselves, and not one I have ever seen them dwell on or exploit.
"The kind of carefree happiness we had before is forever gone from our lives,"
"We will never have that feeling again."
"We asked ourselves, 'How in the world are we ever going to get joy back into our lives again,' "
Not claiming any authority on this, but those statements just don't seem right to me. They fly in the face of claims of "living your life for your child."
Did they son want them to be joyless? According to them, if I have a good time now that Drew is dead, is something wrong with ME?
Is the only way to get joy back in your life to have MORE children?
I just remembered I saw her on TV yesterday, talking about this very thing, saying that people come up to her all the time talking about "being a member of the same club," or something like that.
IMO -- and I'm certainly not smart enough to know -- but something is not right with these statements. If they really DO still feel that way after 8 years, they need psychological help.
In the future can you get a photo of the beach side of Edwards' house?
I think their attitude is called "passive-aggressive."
Just so you'll know, it's on a point on a private island, overlooking Wrightsville Beach, the Atlantic Ocean, the sound and the Intercoastal Waterway.
Just one of the regular people.
Yes...how do the other children feel? The poor youngest son, being "middle-named" after his older brother's Latin class name?
I can only imagine the profound grief a parent would feel at losing a child, but I also thought there's some interesting psychology at work in the Edwards family...
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