God Speed Elizabeth Edwards

Yesterday as news hit the airways regarding the death of Elizabeth Edwards a soft sigh seemed to be in the air. People from both sides of the party lines took this news as sad news indeed. In recent years the reportage regarding the Edwards' has been more of terminal illness and of extra marital affairs. However, earlier in this decade she and her husband, John Edwards, were known more as politicos in the John Kerry campaign and later in John Edwards' own run for the White House. Regardless of the publicity the couple received Elizabeth Edwards' has maintained her highly regarded reputation of a strong mother, a stealthy advocate for our country's healthcare system and a warrior against the disease that ultimately has taken her life. Always leaving her audiences and supporters with a sense of hope and a charge to fight for life and not succumb to death.


Refusing to hide the fact that she had cancer, she became the voice of so many Americans. Americans who struggle each day to find the balance of living with a deadly disease. Always bringing to the table the essence of resilience, grace and strength, among the very trying times that she faced over the last few years. Elizabeth Edwards was a famous woman that died of a famous disease. And as our hearts go out to her family for their loss, I am reminded of the many people that are faced with these situations each day. The many people that are not famous. I think that Elizabeth Edwards was mindful of these masses too.

Mrs. Edwards life reminds us that gaining a place in the hearts of others has little to do with the problems that you face or the struggles that you may go through in life. In fact many of her supporters might argue that they gained their affinity for this public figure because of the way she handled life's problems and daily struggles, not just because she was plagued with them. I think the important lesson to learn here is that what defines us can never be a disease or marital scandal. What defines us is in our hearts and souls, and the integrity that those two parts of our being allow us to have. Yesterday I feel that we lost a voice that spoke out to the darkness, a person that advocated the things that are hard to deal with and almost impossible to change. But what we did not lose was her message, a message that we should all carry forward. Gracefully telling us that we don't have to give up - a message that will most certainly live o