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.
Good question. Apparently, Edwards didn't think that little fact was important enough to include in his story.
It's another reason they selected Edwards - to balance Kerry's ever-present sad-sack look.
But look at it this way, this clearly indicates what the dums think about the American electorate. they want the American people to vote for them because they are sad that people die, and because they would have a VP they could look at without getting the willey's.
I truly wish JEs son had lived a long full life.
I wish the same for all the children that have been aborted over the years.
Where is JEs grief for them?
Oh my!! Just when you think the dims can't sink any lower, they do!
I waited for someone else to say it first.
BUMP.
until now............
I'm getting real tired of the baby kissing, too.
Any parent that would give a jeep to an inexperienced driver needs to have their head examined. I am saving my 91 volvo 240 for my soon to be driver
Well it should at least quieten the noise about Dubya's "smirk."
How important is that to the campaign or john edwards?
I wonder if it lights up at night, like a disco ball.
I lost my son to cancer 12 years ago, so I think I can say this with some authority. I saw that coming this morning. FOX devoted some time to this tragic episode in Edward's life. I think if he allows this, he is despicible. People are curious. That is fine, but to constantly bring it up at rallies and so forth deminishes his son's memory. In my opinion.
Using his own sons demise for self gain shows the kind of trash this sort really is.......
Stay safe Jenya !
I agree. I ache for any parent who has lost a child. I can only imagine the lifelong pain.
However, the Edwards are not unique. It happens every day, somewhere in this country. Using this for some kind of sympathy support or special "reason to run" is sickening. Furthermore, I don't buy it. I don't even see the connection.
Another kid in that vehicle was either hurt or kilt (using NCian again).
Sounds pretty public to me and well worth discussing, particularly since Edwards is the kind of guy who would ordinarily find reason to fleece the other side in the case!
"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."
If Edwards doesn't come out SECREAMING over articles like this one then he is indeed dragging his dead boy out of his grave to dance him about on the hustings for votes.
By the way: which of Edwards "friends" knows his feelings about not dragging his dead son into campaigns and went ahead and did it for him!? Yeah thats what I thought.
While interviewing consultants for the Senate race, Edwards said Wade's death was off limits. "He pretty much told every consultant -- he interviewed five or six -- that if you so much as write one word about my son or in any way use him for political purposes, you will be fired at that moment, and, to the extent that I can, I will sue you," Kirby said.
http://poynter.blogs.com/politics/2003/11/the_focused_pro.html
Think about that -- he threatened to sue people he was considering hiring if they so much as mentioned his son! I've never heard of any such politician threatening his staffers like that.
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