Cancer recurrence won't stop Edwards' campaign

By Libby Spencer

Needless to say, I join the nation in sending my thoughts and prayers to Elizabeth Edwards, who just discovered a new cancer has manifested in her bones and possibly her lungs. I don't like thinking about cancer. It's taken a few people I know away already and I have three cherished friends who are right now fighting this treatable, yet maddeningly incurable disease.

I find it remarkable they can talk about it so routinely, discussing chemo and other treatment regimes in the same tone as they might discuss dinner plans, and I find it inspiring that they can carry on with their lives as if that death sentence isn't hanging over every waking moment. Their courage sometimes moves me to tears in my private moments and my heart breaks for all of us, because I fear they will be taken from us who love them, too soon.

I'm an extraordinarily empathetic person, but I can hardly comprehend how much more difficult it must be, to be compelled to share such a diagnosis with an entire world of strangers. I'm in awe of John and Elizabeth Edwards in this difficult moment and hope their grace and strength will assist all victims of terminal illness to find the same limitless fortitude as they, and my dear friends, possess.

If you missed the presser, Shakes has the video.

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)