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.

"Both parties? I am trying to think of a Republican doing it."

Yes, former Republican Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, (who I voted for as AG and Govenor).

Politics Page - Internet Issue 69 (2), January 2002
http://www.polishnews.com/fulltext/politics/2002/politics69_2.shtml

JIM RYAN:

Clear Values -
Strong Purpose -
Our Next Governor?

A FAMILY MAN

Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan was born in Chicago on February 21, 1946. He grew up in Villa Park and graduated from Illinois Benedictine College in 1968, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. In 1971, he received his law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Ryan is family man who doesn't like to spend the night away from his wife and children. He and Marie, his high school sweetheart and wife of 33 years, have six children and four grandchildren. Ryan's oldest son John and wife Stacie have three children, Caitlyn, Joey, and Sarah. His second oldest, Jim and wife Heather have a daughter, Grace. Matt and his fiancee Melissa are planning a June 2002 wedding. Ryan's daughter Amy works in interior design and son Patrick is a high school senior. Another beloved daughter, Annie, died in 1997. The Ryans raised their family in Bensenville. Marie admits that at times it was hard raising six kids on a prosecutor's salary but says, "I hope that what we were unable to give our children financially, we have made up for in love and good times."

JIM RYAN, THE FAITHFUL FIGHTER

Jim Ryan is a fighter. He has fought for what he thinks is right his entire life. He has fought for justice, for his family, for his faith, and for his health. His experience as a teenage Golden Gloves boxing champion helped prepare him to handle the rough blows that life would deliver, but it was his family and his faith in God that saw him through his darkest moments.

In August 1996, Ryan's doctor's discovered three large tumors in his section. The diagnosis: non-Hodgkin's large -cell lymphoma. It meant that Ryan would begin an aggressive regimen of radiation and che-motherapy.

That was just the beginning of what turned out to be a tragic chain of events - compared by the media to the trials of Job in the Bible. In January 1997, the Ryans suddenly lost their youngest child, 12-year-old Anne Marie to an undetected brain tumor. The loss devastated the Attorney General, who was still undergoing chemotherapy. He gave the eulogy at Annie's funeral mass saying, "We can all learn a lot from Annie. Annie had a generous spirit, she was unselfish and cared more about others than she did for herself . . . Annie was a peacemaker . . . she wanted people to get along."

"As a prosecutor, I've dealt with victims all my life. I've dealt with families who've lost loved ones in even more tragic circumstances. But when you experience it firsthand, there is nothing more devastating."

Then in October -- just nine months later -- as the family struggled to live on without Annie, Ryan's wife Marie nearly died after suffering cardiac arrest. The Attorney General was with his wife when it happened. They had been out for a walk near their home when Marie said she felt some chest pain. Ryan insisted they go to the hospital. On the way, Marie stopped breathing, and after Ryan attempted CPR, to no avail, he rushed onto the hospital. Doctors credited the Attorney General's quick action with helping to save Marie's life. For several days, the family did not know if Marie would make it or if she did, whether she would suffer permanent brain damage.

Mrs. Marie Ryan

"I could survive almost anything, but I can't imagine losing Marie. She is the glue that holds our family together. She is our heart," Ryan said shortly after his wife was released from the hospital in 1997.

Still, what seemed an epic tale of tragedy was not over. Shortly after winning a second term as Attorney General, Ryan would battle cancer again and suffer complications that would nearly take his life. In 1999 while undergoing another round of chemotherapy to treat a tiny cancerous growth on his jaw, Ryan was hit with a life-threatening bout of pneumonia. Recovery was long and painful, but the Attorney General kept right on fulfilling his duties to the state. Even from his hospital bed, he was conferring with his chief deputies.

"I don't consider myself strong, I just get up every day and do the very best that I can. I got into politics because you can do things in public life to help people that you can't always do on your own . . .The adversity in my life has sharpened my focus and I think given my public service a sense of urgency that maybe it didn't have before. Every day does count".

After surviving two battles with cancer, Ryan's next battle would hold a silver lining. The Attorney General's doctors discovered another cancerous growth. But this time - the silver lining - the cancer is a low-grade small cell lymphoma, a much less aggressive, highly treatable form of cancer.

I feel 100 percent healthy and am grateful that my doctor is convinced that I can continue my work schedule without slowdown."

"Most of all, my faith in God and my family have helped me to endure. These things change you. I appreciate my family more. I value life more. I want my life to count."

A 30-YEAR COMMITMENT
TO PUBLIC SERVICE

Ryan began his 30 years in public service as a DuPage County Assistant State`s Attorney in 1971. He went on 13 years later to become the DuPage County State`s Attorney and was re-elected by overwhelming margins in 1988 and 1992. While in office he was recognized as one of the most successful prosecutors in Illinois.

Ryan was elected Illinois Attorney General in 1994. During the first term as Attorney General, Ryan developed anti-gang initiatives as chairman of the Governor's Commission on Gangs, fought for legislation to combat child abuse and domestic violence, boosted protection for senior citizens and other consumers and accelerated litigation against large and small polluters alike.

Attorney General Ryan took a significant step toward fulfilling his pledge to turn his second term into a crusade for children when, in late 1998, he gained the largest public settlement in the state's history.

Ryan said he would fight to make sure significant portions of the $9.1 billion settlement of the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry are used to benefit children and public health.

Ryan's second term as Attorney General began in January 1999 following his decisive re-election. The career prosecutor led both tickets in margin of victory and was only the second state constitutional officer in Illinois history to receive two million votes in an election. He was endorsed by every large newspaper in the state after winning acclaim for professionalizing the state's chief legal office and assuming statewide leadership in the war against crime.

THE RYAN RECORD ON CHILDREN

Attorney General Jim Ryan has been recognized as "one of the most effective attorneys general in the state's history." (State Journal Register, Oct. 23, 1998) His record demonstrates his unwavering commitment to putting children and families first.

Ryan has said he is most proud of his work starting the state's first Child Advocacy Center. Ryan was the catalyst in the creation and expansion of the state's 28 centers, designed to treat young victims of child sexual abuse in a caring and child-friendly manner. As DuPage County State's Attorney, Ryan started the first center in 1987. He has continued to support the centers by channeling thousands of dollars in grant money to them each year, including a $250,000 grant to the Chicago center that opened earlier this year.

Ryan has also gained praise for launching the most aggressive statewide effort in the nation to address the problem of deadly violence in schools when he appointed a bi-partisan task force of top school and law enforcement leaders.The task force created a 14-point "Safe to Learn" plan to safeguard schools. The centerpiece of the plan is the $14 million in school safety grants that have been distributed to schools statewide since 1999. Ryan also fought for and obtained passage of a law that requires teachers and principals to report students caught with guns in school, and provides for adult prosecution of juveniles at least 15 years old who shoot someone on school property.

To further help children from recurring images of violence, Ryan began a campaign to curb the sales of ultra-violent video games to children. Ryan gained national attention for his efforts which began in April 2000 when, joined by a coalition of medical, education and anti-violence groups, Ryan urged major retailers to enforce an existing rating system and stop selling the games to minors. In response, Montgomery Wards and Sears announced a nationwide removal of all "M" rated games from their stores and Kmart, Wal-Mart, Target, Shopko and Circuit City began nationwide "carding" programs to screen youngsters.

CANDIDACY FOR GOVERNOR

If a picture says a thousand words, you can learn a lot about Jim Ryan by picturing his announcement for Governor. There was no pomp and circumstance - just a public servant standing with his family and closest friends in front of his boyhood home,the home his father built. A true family man, Ryan talked plainly about why he wants to be our next Governor.

"This is the house my father built - the home I grew up in. It was here where my parents gave me the values and taught me the difference between right and wrong. My sisters and I learned the importance of faith and family; the value of education, hard work, honesty and personal responsibility. More important, we experienced the power of unconditional love.

"In the last few years, the adversity in my life has strengthened my resolve to make a difference. It has sharpened my focus and reinforced the values I acquired right here many years ago. It is with these timeless values and new sense of purpose that I announce my decision to run for Governor of Illinois.

"I am running for Governor to put children and families first, to protect taxpayers by restoring fiscal discipline and to expand economic opportunity. I am running to change the way we do business in Springfield."

Lori Bolas

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