by Sapna Maheshwari

Maheshwari is a junior in the school. This piece is based on Elizabeth Edwards’ visit to Val Lauder’s feature-writing classes in spring 2007.

When Elizabeth Edwards says, "I'm happy to be here," you know she's telling the truth.

Her warmth and candidness melt the dryness of the conference room of journalism students she is in, and a class interview is suddenly spun into one of those afternoon living room chats with a friend you haven’t phoned in a while.

It is her normalcy, in fact, that is so striking about her.

Search the 57-year-old former lawyer and full-time mother’s face carefully, but you will not find even slight evidence of the wounds life has inflicted on her. They are wounds that a weaker person could wear in the corners of her mouth, in her eyes, in her walk or in her voice.

But Edwards is, above all, resilient.

Not only has she experienced the death of her 16-year-old son in a car accident in 1996, the defeat of husband John Edwards in the 2004 presidential election, a hard-fought recovery and a recurrence of cancer discovered in March, but she relived many of these tragedies in a book released this past July called “Saving Graces.”

“When you expose yourself this way…” she pauses, thinking how best to describe her feelings to a group of UNC-Chapel Hill students, “you feel like you’ve walked out into the middle of Franklin Street naked.” She smiles.

The book has a selfless source and purpose, like Edwards, who is an extremely devoted mother and philanthropist.

“After the election, some people from one publisher came and they sort of wanted to tell my story,” she explains. “I had a lot of time to think about it and while I was thinking about it, people were caring for me. People who knew me, people who didn’t know me.”

Edwards recalls particulars, like the group of high school students from Chippewa Falls, Wis., who knitted her a cap and the supportive note she received from a women’s club in Lakeland, Texas.

She marvels, “I received 30,000 pieces of snail mail.”

It was these pieces of mail that propelled Edwards to begin writing a book.

“Instead of writing about me, I wanted to write it about how much my life was made easy by people who reached out and helped me.”

From early on, connections defined Edwards’ life. The daughter of a high-ranking Navy pilot, she moved 14 times by the time she was 17. She describes the closeness of military communities and the effect of this upbringing on
her worldview.

“The surroundings might be different but people basically want the same thing,” she emphasizes.

It is this idea that might contribute to her uniquely honest nature, particularly in the political arena, where scrutiny is so heavy. This honesty has been criticized in the past and has led to harsh headlines, like those accusing her of bashing Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.

Edwards rolls her eyes at the headlines, results of off-hand comments, but admits that her outspokenness is just one reason why she will never run for office.  

She does, however, point out her dissatisfaction with Laura Bush’s role as first lady.

“She seems very pleasant,” Edwards says fairly, “but the whole time she’s been first lady, she’s had a huge megaphone sitting next to her but she hasn’t picked it up.”

Edwards took particular issue with the removal of Laura Bush’s skin cancer tumor last November and the lack of publicity that she gave the event.

“I think that you have to recognize that you have this role now, and if she has skin cancer and she has something that looks suspicious, her letting people know would have the effect of other people saying, ‘I have this spot and I should go get it checked,’” argues Edwards.

And like any good lawyer does, she cites: “I know for a fact that I made little differences.”

Her strong feelings about this are no surprise – after all, part of writing “Saving Graces” was to shed light on the cancer experience and to provide “a frame of reference” for others dealing with similar issues.

“I had this idea that I’ve been through our son’s death so I was going to be able to power through this,” she says of her first experience with breast cancer. “I wanted to say to women – you’re not going to actually do that,” she continues, shaking her head. “It’s just too physically debilitating.”

Her description of her battle with cancer remains in line with everything Edwards says: not sugarcoated at all.

“Your fingernails start to get yellow. Every joint in your body is killing you. Some days, you don’t feel like you can get out of bed and some days, you can’t get out of bed,” she lists.

Then, her resilience rises to conquer the effect of these grim details.

“You either fight it or give up to it,” she says matter-of-factly.

And Edwards is certainly not going to give up, especially with three children – the most important part of her life – waiting for her at home.

She smiles while describing the role her children play in her life: Catharine, who is attending law school, Emma Claire, 8, and Jack, 6.

“When John wrote a book, to make it easier, I printed all our calendars and put it on a schedule,” she says. “I realized we did almost nothing that didn’t involve our kids.”

But it was more of an amusement than a problem. “Our life is richer because of that,” she says.

Growing up in constant movement and then going from hotshot lawyer to wife of a potential vice president, it seems that Edwards would be bored with the quieter life she leads now.

But her famous resilience also lends itself to adaptability.

“What you find yourself doing, particularly if you’re a working mother, is changing what it is that entertains you,” she remarks.

Maybe this is the secret of life that Edwards surely must be privy to, to overcome all she has with such grace.

“You find your joys in the things that surround you and that’s what I’ve done.”

So when Elizabeth Edwards says she’s happy to be here, you had better believe it. ♦