BOSTON – John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, visited the grave of their son, Wade, on Tuesday before leaving their hometown of Raleigh, N.C., to fly to Boston to accept the Democratic vice presidential nomination.
Edwards said the acceptance speech he will give tonight is essentially finished. He told reporters he awoke at 4 a.m. and practiced it for several hours while his wife slept.
“I think anybody listening to this speech will think it’s positive,” Edwards told reporters on his campaign plane.
The Edwardses were met at Logan International Airport in Boston by their three children, Cate, 22; Emma Claire, 6; and Jack, 4.
Edwards said he expected his speech to run close to half an hour. “I’ll talk some about Sen. Kerry, I’ll talk some about my personal view about why he should be president, what kind of character he has. I’ll talk some about my own background, and then lay out some specific ideas to support our vision for the country.”
Voters usually don’t have to listen very closely to hear John Edwards talk about his family.
At virtually every campaign stop, the North Carolina senator trumpets his humble origins as the son of a textile millworker, the first of his clan to attend college. Tonight, his family’s profile will be raised even higher when his eldest daughter introduces Elizabeth Edwards, who in turn will welcome Edwards to the stage to accept the nomination for the vice presidency.
The family member, however, most pivotal in launching Edwards’ spectacular rise in politics is Wade Edwards, John and Elizabeth’s firstborn, who died at 16 in a one-car accident on a North Carolina interstate eight years ago. Fierce crosswinds have been blamed for causing the teenager’s SUV to flip over several times.
Beyond those few facts, the Edwards family will scarcely discuss what the 51-year-old politician acknowledges in his recent book “Four Trials” “was and is the most important fact of my life.”
After months of intense mourning, the couple determined that Edwards, who voted infrequently until the accident, would run for political office and Elizabeth Edwards would have more children at age 48 and 50.
“They obviously went through a lot of soul-searching and great pain as they tried to come to grips with Wade’s death,” said David Kirby, former law partner with Edwards and a longtime family friend. “I think they both concluded the best way to honor their son was to try to live life to its fullest.”
For the Edwardses, the intensely personal became political. And a grief that has consumed others became instead transformative and life-altering.
Associated Press
Sen. John Edwards, his wife, Elizabeth, and their children Emma, 6, and Jack, 4, leave their plane Tuesday in Boston.
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