In the spirit of women in recent public eye who have stood by their partner through thick and thin...
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of the presidential candidate John Edwards was on the news lately after the much publicized affair of John Edwards. She has recently published a book 'Resilience' that talks about her life thus far, her fight with cancer and also her relationship with her husband and how it has evolved.
I listened to her interview, in which she talks with so much clarity and explains how she reacted to the affair and how she and her husband are coping with it. In part of her conversation she says “He made this one mistake, so do I throw out all the good stuff and say, ‘That doesn’t matter, only this matters?"
She mentioned that he (John) had a weakness for a brief moment which he is trying to overcome and neither can abandon their life and kids that they so carefully put together. She explained how it takes work and commitment to stay in a relationship for a long time and though it might shudder in such momentary quakes, it was going to stand and last.
One other thing she mentioned was, how John was supportive of her during her fight against Cancer. She mentions this one night, when she lay in bed frail and almost bald and John looked down at her like she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen... It is wonderful that in such hard times, she is able to think of the finest moments in her life, to keep her going.
When asked about the other woman, she said neither of them were in anyway aware of the other's life. But that did not give her(Hunter) the right to attempt to destroy something she so dearly held close. And I began to wonder, how she would have felt if she knew this woman up close and personally all those years ? Anyways, in today's world when couples need just one silly reason to separate, when there is absolutely no tolerance such women should stand as our beacons and lead the way. Make it fashionable and feminist to be tolerant, committed and above all resilient.
What brought tears to my eyes was the message she wanted her children to take...
“I have said before that I do not know what the most important lesson is that I will ever teach my children, Cate and Emma Claire and Jack. I do know that when they are older and telling their own children about their grandmother, they will be able to say that she stood in the storm, and when the wind did not go her way — and surely it has not — she adjusted her sails.”
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