For 75 minutes yesterday, Elizabeth Edwards, who died this week at age 61, was eulogized as smart, funny, authentic, outspoken and always optimistic.
Above all, she was passionate and a fierce lover of her family.
“She would do anything in the world to protect all of us, no matter the personal cost was to her,” said her daughter Cate Edwards, eulogizing Elizabeth.
The late Elizabeth Edwards (1949-2010).
"She has been a light house to all of us. She's always been that source of light to us. Every lesson she has taught us has become part of our ethic."
Her estranged husband, former Sen. John Edwards, joined more than 1,200 mourners at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Edenton, N.C.
The political wife, lawyer and author's close friend Hargrave McElroy and former UNC Law School classmate Glenn Bergenfield also spoke Saturday.
Unfortunately, the public memorial was not without controversy.
A small group of protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., known for picketing military funerals, demonstrated near the church.
On the other side of the street, reports
The News Observer, stood a much larger group, holding signs with the optimistic words "hero" and "hope."
The wife of the two-time Democratic presidential candidate died at her Chapel Hill home Tuesday after battling cancer for the last six years.
"Today we have lost the comfort of Elizabeth's presence, but she remains the heart of this family," the Edwards family said in a statement.
Elizabeth separated from John in January after he acknowledged he fathered a child with Rielle Hunter, a videographer and campaign aide.
May Elizabeth rest in peace.
