Elizabeth Edwards ‘A Lighthouse to All of Us,’ Says Daughter Cate at Funeral

Sounds like a fine farewell to a great lady….

RALEIGH, N.C. – Elizabeth Edwards was remembered as a loving mother and loyal friend in a memorial service that acknowledged the turmoil she confronted with “grace and strength,” in the words of her daughter, Cate Edwards. Politicians with headline names joined the public in saying goodbye Saturday at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in this city she called home years before she became a national figure and symbol.

On Tuesday, Elizabeth Edwards, 61, died of cancer. On a gray, rainy Saturday, lifelong friends and family gathered to mourn and remember Edwards’ intelligence, sense of humor and uncompromising attitude. Following her mother’s draped casket into the church, Cate, 28, held hands in a line with her 10-year-old brother, Jack, their father, John Edwards, and sister, Emma Claire, 12.

In her tribute, Cate called her mother “feisty and smart as a whip.” She never held that against people, said Cate, “unless she was right and they were wrong.” She said her mother was a “consistent source of wisdom,” about everything from wearing solid colors to never marrying the first boy you date. (“You would never buy the first pair of shoes you try on.”)

“She’s been a lighthouse to all of us, a point of guidance when we all feel lost,” Cate said of her mother. “Even in her last days, she was comforting us.” She quoted from the letter to her children Elizabeth Edwards had long been working on: “All I ever really needed was you,” it said, “your love, your presence, to make my life complete.”

via Elizabeth Edwards ‘A Lighthouse to All of Us,’ Says Daughter Cate at Funeral.