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 I can get on the island now.........LOL. Secret Service, you know!
That's been my point all along. Give Kerry the anticipated 3-to-4 SCOTUS appointments over the next four years, and we'll never see another *nominally* conservative court for the rest of our lives. Scalia will be writing some pretty red-hot decent opinions.
Curse you, Lauch Faircloth, and your infernal wind-generating machine!
True.
Scalia and Thomas will be
surrounded by commies, and
this nation will not recover
from that without a bloodletting
similar to that recent unpleasantness
some 140 years ago.
He didn't (I'll assert after assessing the situation and personality here). This story was given out in order to exploit the son's death while attempting to convey that doing exactly that would be a firing offense.
They revel in their own misery, and want the world to take notice. No one ever characterized a Democrat as having a firm grip on mental health.
The Democrats are about to nominate another couple of head-cases.
Their comments, especially the ones about all the joy having gone out of their lives even though they still had a daughter - and implying they had to replace their dead son with two babies - do seem rather dismissive of her or her own grief over the loss of her brother. I'm trying not to be judgmental, as I realize people respond different ways to grief, but when they cross the line into exploitation, my sympathy will dry up.
That's right. I thought it might have been a little jeep with big off road tires. It was a simple Cherokee. The boy couldn't drive and Edwards gave him a car. Probably not maintained either.
Smart move. We saved our '86 Volvo wagon for our daughter, who's now married and 23, and glad to have a safe, reliable car. We just bought a '93 Volvo wagon for our two 20 y.o. sons to take back to college next month. Parents need to consider the safety factor- more for their driving kids than themselves! I hate it that Volvos have the reputation of being a "liberal" car, at least here in the Northwest...
GHW Bush and Barbara made so little mention of her passing that I had to look her up on Google just to know what you were talking about. I didn't even know that they had lost a daughter.
It was Bob Kerrey that recruited Edwards to run for office
I'm am very sorry that Edwards' lost their son in a terrible car accident .. it's every parents worse nightmare
However that is NOT a reason to elect him to be a Vice President
And the story about how he doesn't use his son's death ... then why is it in almost EVERY article I have read about John Edwards
Oh and that bottle of Gatorade ... it would get kind of moldy after 2 years
That plus some wealthy people just feel 'entiltled'. They are better than we are - so nothing else counts since they have more money than we do.
It's amazing how many of them are so disfunctional. They have everything - can do anything they want and I guess they bore themselves to distraction.
Greed sets in and they want MORE - money - power, etc! In this case - if Edwards continues to allow the media to keep his son's death as part of the campaign - then one has to think that he will do anything to satisfy that greed.
For the children, doncha know.
Off Topic
My local talk radio just said something about Arron Brown from CNN once dated Edwards wife
Is that true??
Two babies. It's almost like daddy had to have that son, isn't it?
I don't think you're being judgmental at all; hell, I'm being judgmental and I know how it feels!
We just made a decision early on not to let it destroy us; we thought it would reflect poorly on Drew's life.
I read it right here on FR!
Really ???
Where?
B.I.N.G.O!!!!!
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