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.
"What happened to the other child in the car?"
http://www.roadwomen.com/Articles_Archive/ananswer-edwards.htm
An Answer That's Blowing in the Wind
John Edwards's Political Rise Followed Tragedy, And Much Joy
By Richard Leiby
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 7, 2001; Page C01
Gore also used the "almost died" son during his campaign .
Good point. Perhaps the Urinal Ticket didn't get the bounce they expected so now they need to garner the sympathy vote. Democrats are just plain sick.
Same here, particulary since they're in favor of baby killings.
Ahhh, but Wade will.
It's my understanding, or at least my distinct impression, that Edwards welcomes the attention to this family tragedy. I agree, this child's death should be considered irrelevant to the campaign, but that's not how you get the sympathy vote.
It's okay with the RATS to have other people's children die.
There are so many people who have had their children die before they do - but they don't make a run for the Senate.
Edwards did not even serve one term in the Senate and would have lost a re-election bid.
He wants to be President one day. He feels entitled! After all - he lost a son.
I can hardly believe the Democrats are using the dead Edwards son as a political prop to push the Edwards candidacy. He was not a politician. He was a teenager. They should leave him out of this campaign.
He had to sue someone - since he got wealthy by doing that for others.
Losing a child is a pain I hope to never imagine - but the story of the jeep being blown by wind sounds odd.
Anyone have more details.
After 2 years, I think that would create a mold problem.
I can understand not functioning if I lost one of my kids, but I do think I could pour out the Gatorade.
He doesn't mind using it when he wants money:
But the case remembered as his biggest win came in 1997 and involved a 5-year-old girl who was injured by a swimming-pool drain. The drain cover was off and the girl was trapped by a suction pump with enough force to extract her intestines. The manufacturer argued that if the cover had been installed correctly, the accident would not have happened.
Edwards countered the company should have provided better warning labels. "Some of the covers say nothing," he said during his summation. "If that continues, it's not a question of whether there's going to be another child hurt. It's just a question of when."
Later, he pulled a newspaper out of his jacket and started to read.
"There was a wonderful, wonderful thing written this past spring. . . . It involved the death of a young boy who shouldn't have died, and what he wrote was this: `We have to gather around this family not because we understand what they're going through, but because -- but because they have to know we share their pain. Our feelings -- our terrible, terrible feelings prove that we really all are part of the same family. Their loss was our loss. Their child was our child.' "
What Edwards did not tell the jury, although some lawyers in the audience knew, was that the piece referred to his own son, Wade, who had been killed in a 1996 car accident at age 16.
When the jury came back with the $23 million verdict, 10 of the 12 jurors were crying, recalled the judge who presided at the trial.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/15/edwardss_career_tied_to_jury_award_debate/
This will be a theme coming to a DemorcRATic convention near you, SOON!
Well, that answers my question...
When the jury came back with the $23 million verdict, 10 of the 12 jurors were crying, recalled the judge who presided at the trial.
10 Democrat women, I’d wager.
Well, he's got that voting block wrapped up. Wow.
The Kerry/Edwards team will run on the Vietnam/Wade's Death/Hate Bush platform.
What about a REALLY important issue, such as the tubbiness of Mrs. Edwards? Makeover!
TWICE...he used this same I am running for my son heart string pulling ploy when he ran for Senate too.
Just fits with his say anything, do anything, run over anybody TRIAL LAWYER persona.
What next? Will they make a float out of Wade to parade through the liberal strongholds of blue states?
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