Why Do I Care if Elizabeth Edwards is Filing for Divorce? 

Some friends told me last night that there are rumors that Elizabeth Edwards is filing for divorce. I heard this news with great interest, probably too much interest. So I had to google search it and sure enough, there were all kinds of stories about Elizabeth being spotted without her wedding ring and rumors that she and John are no longer living together.

When the story about John Edwards cheating first broke, I wrote on this site that I hoped that she would refuse to stand next to him at a press conference looking like a deer in headlights, a la Elliot Spitzer's wife. And I was glad that she stayed away when he made his public mea culpa. But I still wanted her to dump him, That seems wrong, to want someone else's marriage to be over. To want someone to react a particular way to infidelity. After all, it is a very personal and private matter. I know couples that are much closer and have a better marriage after one or the other strayed.

This was different for me, though. He cheated on her while she had cancer. I think maybe it was just too close to my own story. You see, I don't think that there is redemption for someone that cheats on a person when they are at their most vulnerable. And while I don't doubt his wife's cancer was hard on him, it was that much harder on her. I know what it is like to go through chemo. I know what it is like to be afraid of dying and equally afraid of the treatment. I know what it is like to lose your hair and your femininity and your energy and your hope. And I know what it is like to have the person you think loves you betray you in the midst of all that.

So I don't know if Elizabeth Edwards is divorcing John, but I kind of hope that she is. She seems like a truly caring and lovely woman and for whatever time she has left, she deserves so much better.