RESILIENCE

Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities

by ELIZABETH EDWARDS

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New softcover book, 237 pages. Published 2010

'Let's start with the unavoidable fact: If I had special knowledge about how to avoid adversities, about how to spot the pitfalls of life, I would spot them, I would avoid them, ad I would share how it is I managed that. I do not. I have a lot of experience in getting up after I have been knocked down, but clearly I do not know anything at all about avoidance. We all tumble and fall. I certainly have, but in truth it is going to happen, in some degree, to all of us. Oh, maybe everyone we care about will live to attend our funerals. Maybe everyone whom you live and who loves you will be loyal to you in every way for every day of your life. Or maybe not.'

Elizabeth Edwards was one of the most beloved political figures in the US, and on the surface, seemed to have led a charmed life. In many ways, she did. Beautiful family. Thriving career. Supportive friendship. Loving marriage. But she was no stranger to adversity. Many know of the strength she had shown after her son, Wade, was killed in a freak car accident when he was only sixteen years old. She would exhibit this remarkable grace and courage again when the very private matter of her husband's infidelity became public fodder. And when her own life was on the line. Days before the 2004 presidential election - when her husband John was running for vice president - she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After rounds of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation the cancer went away - only to reoccur in 2007.

While on the campaign trail, Elizabeth met many others who have had to contend with serious adversity in their lives, and in Resilience, she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life's biggest challenges. This short, powerful, inspirational book makes an ideal gift for anyone dealing with difficulties in their life, to draw strength from the kind of attitude that Elizabeth has developed, and find peace in knowing they are not alone.


About the author

Elizabeth Anania Edwards (born Mary Elizabeth Anania on July 3, 1949, in Jacksonville, Florida) was an attorney and the wife of John Edwards, a former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who was the 2004 United States Democratic vice-presidential nominee, and a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. For part of her childhood she lived in Japan, where her father, a United States Navy pilot, was stationed. She attended Mary Washington College and then transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her bachelor's degree from UNC, and also performed three years of postgraduate study in English there. She then entered UNC's School of Law and earned a J.D. She met John Edwards when they were both law students at UNC. They married on July 30, 1977.

Elizabeth and John Edwards were the parents of four children: Wade, Catharine, Emma Claire, and Jack. Wade was killed in a car accident in April 1996. After Wade's death, Edwards and her husband chose to have children again: Emma Claire, born in 1998 when Edwards was 48, and Jack, born in 2000 when she was 50. She was pregnant with Emma Claire during her husband's 1998 Senate race. Emma Claire and Jack were born in Chapel Hill, where the family now resides.

Elizabeth died of metastatic breast cancer on December 7, 2010.

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Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards