Grace and courage: I saw two women who possessed those attributes in the past several weeks. They say that women are the weaker sex, but where the heck did that come from? Most women I have known have been strong, capable and nurturing at the same time. Not a weak one in the bunch.
The two women I speak of are Elizabeth Edwards and Farrah Fawcett.
Mrs. John Edwards who is fighting a terminal cancer for the second time and the fact that her husband cheated on her and perhaps has a child with this other woman personified grace during her interview with Oprah.
Having been in that position once in my life, I can tell you it is extremely hurtful and being kind and forgiving is the last thing on the average woman’s agenda.
Not so with Elizabeth Edwards (as shown here in this courtesy photo). She admits that trust is a thing she and John have to work towards again but they are doing just that. She pointed out that during the toughest times of her life (the loss of their oldest son and her first go-round with cancer) he was there for her. They had a long, happy marriage to this point, he’s a good father and she sees more reason to try to fix the relationship than end it.
Edwards could have said many horrible things about the other woman but did not. Her only request was that her name not be mentioned. She feels that this person is trying to get attention and she will not facilitate that. How many women scorned would be that nice about the other woman.
Sadly, since John Edwards is a public figure, she has to not only fight the cancer in the public eye but deal with this betrayal with the world watching as well.
Elizabeth Edwards has to protect her children and know that when she leaves this earth she leaves them in a good place, not with anger at their father. I was very impressed by her attitude, her courage, her determination to save her marriage and her life.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Farrah Fawcett was recognized as one of the leading actresses in Hollywood with her famous pin-up poster (as shown here in this courtesy photo) and her starring role in TV's "Charlie's Angels. But Fawcett's fame has changed -- battling anal cancer for several years and the tabloids in the processas. She made a documentary of her struggles so far which I watched the other evening. For a celebrity or anyone to allow the world to see the horrors she has been thru is truly courageous. She has endured so much pain I personally would have given up long ago.
At one point she was declared cancer-free only to have it return. When it returned, before she could tell her family, a tabloid paid a hospital employee to raid her medical records and splashed the return of her cancer on the front page of their scandal sheet.
How sad for her family to find out this way. Fawcett fought this paper and now California hospitals have much tighter rules concerning people’s medical records thanks to her. That tabloid has essentially left her alone since then as well. Hurrah for her! The documentary showed how they hound her for pictures, overwhelming the actress fighting for her life and just wanting to do so without the rabid media glare.
The paparazzi have no shame in this country and need to be reined in with laws since they won’t police themselves. After enduring many painful surgeries and treatments in the U.S. that did not work she went to Germany. Other countries are more advanced in alternative medicine and new drug trials and treatments that this country won’t allow.
This courageous lady let us watch her have huge needles inserted into her liver as she squirmed and writhed in pain, insisted that the camera not stop when she was vomiting because this is what cancer is. Fawcett's aim with her documentary is to help others and to spur this country to do more research on all types of cancer and let treatments that work in other countries be used here so patients don’t have to travel far away for a chance at a cure or at least a remission.
Watching her yelp in horrible pain melts your heart and makes you want to be able to make it better. She is fortunate to have Ryan O'Neill who has never left her side and a plethora of friends, even Charlie’s other angels, at her side through all this.
The battle has gone on for several years now and Fawcett is near the end. Her son is in jail for drug problems but they have not told her so when he was allowed to see her, probably for the last time, his father asked him to not let her hear his leg chains. How sad it was to see this man in the orange jumpsuit lay down next to his mother and cry “Mommy.”
She was brave to let us see all this. Now let’s not let her down and see to it that this documentary accomplishes what she intended. Write, call or email your congressmen and demand faster clearance for treatments and medications used and proven in other countries. Don’t Americans deserve the same hope as the Europeans?