According to Dr. Robin, Elizabeth Edwards is someone with many valuable life lessons to share—she's a mother of four who knows what it's like to lose a child and she's a breast cancer survivor who knows what it's like for the disease to return. Most of all, she's a woman who knows how to persevere in the face of great obstacles. Dr. Robin talks with Elizabeth Edwards at Maria Shriver's 2007 Women's Conference in California about gratefulness and some of the most important lessons a parent can teach their child.
Elizabeth says she is most grateful in life for her four children—Cate, Emma Claire, Jack and Wade, who died in a car crash in 1996. She says 25-year-old Cate is an incredible young woman who is shining in law school and has aspirations of going into public interest law in the future. "If all I ever did in all the world was give the world that young woman, I would have done a great thing," Elizabeth says. "If that's my only ripple, that's great."
When her cancer returned in March 2007, Elizabeth announced that she would continue campaigning alongside her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards, while receiving treatment. She says that decision has taught their children to tackle challenges head-on, rather than backing down. "What they've seen their parents do in this circumstance is not to hide under that table," she says. "They've seen their parents in fact renew with vigor the challenges that they were facing before." .
