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.
...their Jeep veered and rolled over, apparently shoved by a gust of wind...
___
I wonder if Edwards was more upset about his son or that he couldn't sue the wind.
That's not fair. Have you ever lost a child?
In my opinion, too.
People how have lost a child can see this for what it is.
I noticed Edwards didn't sue himself for being negligent and enabling the crash. That's, because Mr Edwards is a leach and parasites can't feed very well off themselves.
You're showing your ignorance.
It seems like the over-correction is agreed by all. That is negligent. Allowing a 16 year old boy to drive out of town without an adult in the car could be construed by some clever lawyer to be negligent.
I am pretty sure that if my son is driving in a single car accident and another boy is injured or killed, my insurance company will be offering a settlement.
My point is that accidents happen. 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.
How much did Edwards get?
Yes, but with their money she could go to a clinic in Zurich and fix her problem. She just looks sloppy and not-ready-for-primetime, IMHO.
An Englishman on the John Batchelor radio show mentioned that she was very matronly looking for such a young looking husband. (I believe she is older than he is).
Are there any available pictures of her?
ping
You know I am a court reporter; and you know that I work personal injury cases; and you know I, too, have lost my son.
When I read this article about him reading that newspaper article, I almost puked. Certainly I speak out about carbon monoxide detectors but in my wildest dreams I could NEVER imagine this type of crashness.
He is beyond despicable.
Well, speaking as a tubby person myself, we shouldn't go there......LOL.
But I will tell you this: she has had a makeover.
You get up outta' the Tidewater and they use MOUNTAIN SOUTHERN, and it's not all that different than what's spoken in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.
Hey, thinking of things past (which has that "t" suffix that upset you so), we took a trip through Tobacco Road when I was a kid before they jacked the area up and moved some modern stuff onto site in what has to be one of the major rehabilitation efforts of the Twentieth Century.
(((Howlin)))
I am not good with linking, but go to today's thread KERRYTRACK and see Elizabeth Edwards on the left in the picture in post #41. Yikes, she's bursting at the seams!
30 percent, at a minimum. Plus expenses.
And, no, he did NOT give it to the family. He took it and bought himself a big old beach house on a private island.
At some point, Edwards would be tap-dancing on his son's grave. I agree with you: initially, it's fine to mention, but as soon as he turns it into a standard campaign prop, he's crossed the line into creepy.
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