Washington Post staff

washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, December 8, 2010; 5:28 PM

Elizabeth Edwards died Dec. 7 after stopping cancer treatments the day before. Patricia Sullivan memoralized her:

Ms. Edwards had been a lawyer and formidable force in the political rise of her husband, who went from being a one-term U.S. senator from North Carolina to the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2004 to a presidential candidate in the 2008 Democratic primaries. She separated from him in January.

Describing herself as the "anti-Barbie" for her real-woman figure and her serious intellect, Ms. Edwards's public stature was greatly defined by how she coped with cancer. She talked about it, wrote about it and managed the conversation in much the same way she managed her husband's political career.

Ezra Klein offered up his own take on Edwards''s legacy:

But Edwards's real impact on health-care reform was much larger than people realize. She pushed her husband to make a comprehensive and universal health-care reform plan the centerpiece of his second presidential campaign. She succeeded. John Edwards was the first of the major Democratic candidates to come out with a universal health-care plan, and his proposal, combined with the warm reception it received from major Democratic interest groups and constituencies, forced both Obama and Clinton to counter with their own universal health-care plans. (Additionally, when Obama flew to North Carolina to court Edwards's endorsement, he got into an argument with Elizabeth over the individual mandate -- an argument that, as you can see from the individual mandate in the health-care law, she eventually won.)

The end result was that the three candidates ended up fighting over who would do more to pass a universal health-care bill the fastest, which meant they made repeated promises that, in Obama's case, he eventually found himself having to keep. Without Elizabeth Edwards's involvement, the Edwards campaign would likely have come out with a more modest effort, and the Obama and Clinton campaigns would have taken a similarly incremental approach, and none of the campaigns would have made as many promises on the subject as they did, and health-care reform might never have passed.

That -- and not marital betrayal, or even cancer -- is Elizabeth Edwards's legacy. It may not be how she's remembered, and it may not be what leads her obituaries, but it's what she did. And as a policy wonk, Edwards knew full well that it's what gets done, not what gets said, that matters. I've met a lot of politicians and presidential candidates since that evening at her house. But looking back, the one I'm proudest to have known was her.

我今天看见这则新闻，心里真是很难过。 Elizabeth 是一个坚强的了不起的女性在人生一系列的摧残打击下仍然尊贵地走完人生最后的历程，为公共卫生事业，奔走呼号。为自己的孩子作好他们的母亲不在了以后的准备，她是一个女人，经历了丧子，癌症，著名的丈夫的婚外恋情和婚外女儿的事实，癌症的复发转移，与丈夫分居。一个人在知道自己将不久于世，仍然不失尊贵，这真让我仰视。这两年她写了好几本书，今天当我听到她自己念书的声音，我觉得她是用母亲的心在给自己的孩子念临睡前的故事·····而我禁不住泪流满面····一个女人，一个母亲，一个了不起的人。
我从她对待死亡的态度上，理解了什么是：视死如归。

Elizabeth Edwards :最后的话。

"You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces – my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that.

And, yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human.But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful. It isn't possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day. To you I simply say: you know."