When the couple finally resurfaced after six months of mourning, they had made some life-changing decisions.
"The kind of carefree happiness we had before is forever gone from our lives," Elizabeth Edwards told an interviewer. "We will never have that feeling again."
Edwards returned to work — but only briefly. Wade's death had made his work difficult because it regularly immersed him in other families' tragedies, many of them involving children. [Yet he was able to exploit his son's death in the pool drain case? What fortitude!]
He decided to run for the Senate, a career move he had pondered periodically in the past — with encouragement at the time from his son. ELIZABETH Edwards said she initially thought Wade's death would make her husband less likely to seek public office, but she was wrong. "The one thing a child's death does is wipe the slate clean for you," she said. "It was something Wade wanted him to do."
The Edwards also decided to have more children. "We asked ourselves, 'How in the world are we ever going to get joy back into our lives again,' " said Elizabeth Edwards. "It became clear, the answer was children." [I hope that didn't hurt their older daughter's feelings too much]
Emma Claire was born in 1998, followed two years later by John Atticus. Atticus was the name Wade was given in his high school Latin class.
The Edwards also turned to religion, joining a Methodist congregation and attending Bible study classes. "As you would expect when Wade died . . . you do a lot of thinking and self-analysis, and my faith came soaring back," Edwards noted. "My relationship with the Lord and its importance to me became clear."
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Pardon my cynicism, but it's possible the church membership, having babies, etc., also were considered advantageous to a political candidate. He looks a lot more young and vigorous with two little children than with one 20-something daughter.
The NY Daily News has a sappy column about the late Wade, too: Inspiration from the son he misses so .
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.
"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.