Open to Hope Articles

Articles Home

What Elizabeth Edwards’ Life and Death Teaches Us

Posted on December 10, 2010 - by Jewel Sample

It is often said no one really knows someone until they live with them, so as a part of public observation, I have a view of Elizabeth Edwards that is defined by the media. I have read a few opinions others have made about her, as well as observed her interviews on public television. Through these media resources, I have drawn an opinion about her which includes a sense of her compassion for others. When I heard the news of Elizabeth Edward’s death this week, my thoughts went to what I have learned about grief and loss from her public […]

Elizabeth Edwards Triumphant in Life

Posted on December 10, 2010 - by Sharon Roth-Lichtenfeld

This past week, Elizabeth Edwards passed away. Many articles talked about her struggles in life. I would like to take a moment and discuss her triumphs. Elizabeth Edwards thrived in the face of adversity. In her own words: “Either you push forward with the things that you were doing yesterday or you start dying,” she said. “If I had given up everything that my life was about … I’d let cancer win before it needed to.” Eilzabeth recognized that at some point the cancer would win. However, she was determined to live her life fully before that happened. She had […]

Elizabeth Edwards Comforted Others Who Had Lost a Child

Posted on December 10, 2010 - by Anne Dionne

I met Elizabeth Edwards briefly during the summer of 2007. I was in Oklahoma City, attending a conference of The Compassionate Friends, a bereavement support organization for parents, grandparents and siblings. Mrs. Edwards was one of the keynote speakers. This was during a time when the path of life would take many twists and turns for Elizabeth. Just a few months prior to the conference, Elizabeth had learned that her cancer had returned and was now malignant–all the while, her husband was making a presidendial bid for the White House. This was also a time when, unknown to Elizabeth, her husband […]

Elizabeth Edwards Inspires by Making Meaning in her Life

Posted on December 10, 2010 - by Nancy Rappaport

Elizabeth Edwards’ gift and one of the reasons why the nation mourns her death is she showed the healing that comes after a trauma when you build a narrative of what it means. People looked to Elizabeth as a role model, and most importantly her children needed her to find a way to get past her disappointment and to make sense of what betrayal and infidelity means. She was courageous enough to tell a nuanced story. Of course, we will never know her most private thoughts. As a public person and writer, you always choose what you are willing to […]

Elizabeth Edwards Embodied The Hero Archetype

Posted on December 10, 2010 - by Mary Jane Hurley Brant

Many are mourning the death of Elizabeth Edwards. I would like to share some thoughts of my own about why we are gripped by her life’s story. I believe Elizabeth Edwards embodies two archetypes: the mother and the hero. I will focus on the hero archetype believing it is the more prominent. Just as Odysseus was asked to leave his routine life because something serious occurred, we also may be called to do something heroic. We might be called to save our king, our country, our friend, or ourselves. And because the task is arduous, we may not want to […]

A Poem for Elizabeth Edwards, and a Friend

Posted on December 9, 2010 - by Douglas Colthurst

A lovely young lady of around forty some odd years, who works for me, just found out she has breast cancer. So she troops up and schedules surgery. Then finds out it has metastasized. To her lungs. No surgery. Prepare for chemo, which she does. Then she finds out it has metastasized to her brain. I am not capable of being the person she is. This is for her. And now we’ve lost Elizabeth Edwards. A brave and endearing soul. Like No Other by victortouche Place a key into the lock upon the door and turn the knob. Let’s see, […]

Elizabeth Edwards’ Eyes

Posted on December 9, 2010 - by Kim Go

What interests me about Elizabeth Edwards were her eyes. Perhaps her lovely aquamarine eyes were merely a result of genetic inheritance, but I sense that those eyes were much more than that – that they reflected her inner, transcendent character. Her luminous eyes might also serve us as a lens that we might borrow through which we can view our own challenges. She was, indeed, a bearer of the “gospel of resilience.” The word gospel means “good news.” For all of us who struggle with issues of fidelity, child loss and terminal illness, her story offers numerous symbolic places to […]

Elizabeth Edwards Showed How to Meet Challenges with Humility

Posted on December 9, 2010 - by Lauren Muscarella

There is no shortage of “Remembering Elizabeth Edwards” articles. This deluge of information sometimes leads to overload and subsequent dismissal. The passing of a public figure, like with any notable event, is an important opportunity to spend some introspective time alone. I read through many of those articles and finished feeling unsatisfied by the shallow reporting. I have plenty of memories of Elizabeth Edwards’ news stories. Some stories were good, and some of those stories made me wince at how they intruded on her personal life. After her passing, I wanted to take that perspective and go back in time. […]

Elizabeth Edwards: Woman of Grace

Posted on December 9, 2010 - by Harriet Hodgson

I identified with Elizabeth Edwards. Like her, I had lost a child. Like her, I was a book author. Like her, I spoke to community groups. For years, I followed Elizabeth on television and admired her from afar. She was truly a woman of laughter, grace and courage. What is courage? According to the dictionary, it is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., with firmness and without fear.” I don’t know if Elizabeth faced the recurrence of cancer without fear, but television footage shows her smiling and campaigning for her […]

Elizabeth Edwards Up-Close

Posted on December 9, 2010 - by Alan Pedersen

In July of 2007, I had the incredible honor of sharing the stage with Elizabeth Edwards. It was the opening ceremony of The Compassionate Friends National Conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The original plan was for me to speak briefly and play a couple of songs prior to her speaking, but at the last minute, for security reasons, they decided to flip-flop the order and have her speak and then move to my portion of the program. As I sat on the front row listening to Elizabeth tell her story of losing her oldest son Wade, I was struck by […]