RALEIGH, N.C. – Elizabeth Edwards’s memorial service on Saturday afternoon at the Edenton Street United Methodist attracted at least 2,000 mourners.
The Raleigh church is where Edwards turned to after her 16-year-old son Wade died in an automobile accident in 1996.
Edwards' oldest daughter, 28-year-old Cate, gave a eulogy along with two of her mother's longtime friends, Hargrave McElroy and Glenn Bergenfield.
Speakers recalled Edwards as a woman filled with energy, intellect and humor. They joked they had trouble coming up with what to say without the woman who used to leave notes of advice for those close to her.
"There aren't words that are good enough," said daughter Cate Edwards, whose eulogy contained a passage from a letter her mother spent years preparing to leave to her children after she was gone.
"I've loved you in the best ways I've known how," the letter said. "All I ever really needed was you, your love, your presence, to make my life complete."
During Bergenfield’s eulogy, he talked about Elizabeth down-to-earth personality. "Nothing that she said publicly, as a mother, as an author or as a friend — none of it fed or was in any way fueled by ego," he said.
Bergenfield described Edwards as a close friend to him and his family — giving his children thoughtful advice and teaching people around her to "live like its important."
When Bergenfield was interviewed by CBS news a few days ago, he said Elizabeth didn’t fear death.
“Among the reasons she didn't fear death is that she feels that she has at least the chance to be reunited with her son,” he said.
Of John Edwards Bergenfield said, "I don't know if the people who are angry at him around the country want to believe this, but I think he's grieving. I think he's grieving horribly. … He's lost her, too."
The couple had four children together, including 12-year-old Emma Claire and 10-year-old Jack.
Elizabeth Edwards, 61, died on Tuesday, Dec. 7. She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004, a day after the Kerry-Edwards ticket lost to George W. Bush in that year's presidential election. Doctors declared her cancer-free after grueling treatments, but the disease returned in an incurable form in 2007.
Her last years were tumultuous ones, made difficult by her husband's affair and eventual admission that he'd fathered a child with the mistress. John and Elizabeth Edwards separated about a year ago.
Associated Press contributed
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