Elizabeth's red dress

I read RESILIENCE last summer, on the way back from the deathbed of my sister-in-law who slipped away from pancreatic cancer on July 2. That Elizabeth Edwards wrote such an unflinching, heartfelt book while battling for her life, enduring myriad domestic atrocities, and trying to cope with the accidental death of her teenage son just, well, it blew me away.

Here's to resting in peace. Whatever that means. And here's to her children, the little ones and the grown daughter. I hope the media has the good grace to leave them alone, and let them grieve, thrive, and become amazing adults. Their mother left them quite a legacy.

Here's a Dorothy Parker poem Elizabeth favored, as she claimed that it captured the flow of her life. Enjoy.

The Red Dress by Dorothy Parker

I always saw, I always said
If I were grown and free,
I'd have a gown of reddest red
As fine as you could see,

To wear out walking, sleek and slow,
Upon a Summer day,
And there'd be one to see me so
And flip the world away.

And he would be a gallant one,
With stars behind his eyes,
And hair like metal in the sun,
And lips too warm for lies.

I always saw us, gay and good,
High honored in the town.
Now I am grown to womanhood....
I have the silly gown.