ELIZABETH EDWARDS’ DEATHBED WISH

Eliz_stry

ELIZABETH EDWARDS’ deathbed wish has finally been granted.

A magnificent marble tombstone featuring doves taking flight now stands at her gravesite next to the final resting place of her son Wade.

Before cancer claimed her at age 61 in December 2010, Eliza­beth summoned the same sculptor who created Wade’s monument, Robert Mihaly, to her bedside, and described the monument she wanted, said a source.

“Elizabeth was very weak, but it was very important that she talked to Robert so she could de­scribe exactly what she envisioned for her tombstone,” a family friend revealed.

“Elizabeth said she wanted her memorial to honor a woman’s spirit. So she asked Robert to create a sculpture of doves taking flight. It also echoes her desire to catch up to her son and be connected to him for eternity.”

Wade Edwards – the oldest child of Elizabeth and disgraced politi­cian John Edwards – was tragically killed in a car crash at age 16 in April 1996. He’d lost control of his Jeep while driving from the fam­ily home in Raleigh, N.C., to their beach house near Wilmington.

He was laid to rest at the historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh. His grave is marked with a soaring 10- foot marble monument of an angel cradling him.

“After Wade passed, Elizabeth came to his grave on a daily basis for many years,” said the family source.

“She brought flowers and read chapters from the Bible. Elizabeth also had a plaque that reads ‘When flowers bloom, the angels sing’ placed nearby.”

Besides John, Elizabeth is sur­vived by their daughters Cate, 32, and Emma Claire, 15, and son Jack, 13.

The couple, who married in July 1977, legally separated after The ENQUIRER exposed John’s affair with blonde divorcee Rielle Hunter, a videographer on his presiden­tial campaign and mother of his daughter, Frances Quinn, 6.

The former North Carolina senator was reportedly at Eliza­beth’s side with their children when she lost her brave battle with breast cancer.