Celebrity Babies Blog
TALKING ABOUT CANCER
Elizabeth Edwards' was told recently that her breast cancer is back. She is the wife of John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate. They are recieving a lot of criticism because they decided to keep going with the campaign.
They opened up to People about how they decided to talk to her family and friends about the cancer. When asked, "How did you tell your young children, Emma Claire, 8, and Jack, 6?", they replied:
Elizabeth: We all sat at the table in the family room. We called them in and said we had something important to say and they were just giggling and laughing. Jack had had a field trip to Whole Foods that day. So it was all of those kinds of regular family things. We had to wait for a calm moment, and John said, 'I need to tell y'all something. I need to tell you that Mommy's cancer is back.' They seemed interested but not depressed by the information. They asked was I going to lose my hair, which delighted them the first time. No, I probably wouldn't but John explained to them I probably would be getting medicine again.
We also explained that it wasn't going to go away this time – and that prompted questions about whether I would die from it. John was honest and said that this cancer can kill. Then he said, 'Everybody at the table who's not going to die, raise their hands.' They understood – or I hope they understood – that we're all going to die and nobody has any guarantee of how much time they have. The only thing we have control of is how you spend the time, that precious time.
John Edwards: The kids actually responded well. It's encouraging. It's hard to know how much they actually grasped, but they seemed to understand.
You can see the rest of the interview in People.I really applaude them on how they handled the situation. It is such a very hard subject to talk about.
28 March 2007
http://www.celebritybabies.info/index.php/2007/03/28/talking-about-cancer/
John Edwards Family Christmas Card 2006
