{"id":3469,"date":"2010-12-12T01:56:55","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T01:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/?p=3469"},"modified":"2011-01-12T01:09:40","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T01:09:40","slug":"escorting-elizabeth-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/12\/escorting-elizabeth-edwards\/","title":{"rendered":"escorting elizabeth edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Edwards had been abandoned at a venue by her handlers and needed an escort. One of the event organizers caught me rummaging through the craft service, otherwise idle, and asked if I would be so kind – I certainly would. <\/p>\n

Edwards didn’t look sixty. Or sick. And more than anything, I remember being taken aback at how present and content she seemed, despite her circumstances. I called her Elizabeth<\/em> when introducing myself and cringed at my own informality. <\/p>\n

She noticed and laughed, “Buffy is an old English nickname for Elizabeth, you know.” I said I knew and mentioned The Queen Mum. Edwards asked about my accent, “Kentucky or Northern Ireland?” I said she was very nearly spot-on, on both counts, and told her the story about how I came to be where I came to be.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Elizabeth Edwards<\/center><\/p>\n

We chatted briefly about the health care system in the UK. The need for improvement and expansion at home. About literacy in the mountains. And about Eudora Welty. I gushed about southern gothic, its influence on me, and my own ambitions. <\/p>\n

“Don’t wait.” That’s what she said to me. “You’re never too old. But don’t wait.” <\/p>\n

Elizabeth Edwards waited thirty years, after studying literature at UNC Chapel Hill in the seventies, to return to her writing. When we met she was promoting her second memoir, “Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities”. I apologized for not having read it, admitted my embarrassment. She smiled and told me how much she loved the campus we were on. <\/p>\n

That was last year. <\/p>\n

I’ve thought about our brief encounter often. Edward’s advice, ‘don’t wait’<\/em>, and how loaded that phrase must have been. Her passing really does sadden my heart. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Edwards had been abandoned at a venue by her handlers and needed an escort. One of the event organizers caught me rummaging through the craft service, otherwise idle, and asked if I would be so kind – I certainly would. Edwards didn’t look sixty. Or sick. And more than anything, I remember being taken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hum-drum","category-book-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3469"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3669,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3469\/revisions\/3669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}