Cate Edwards eulogizes her mother Elizabeth Edwards: 'A consistent source of wisdom'

Elizabeth Edwards' funeral was held Saturday (Dec. 11) in Raleigh, N.C. She was honored in eulogies first from her friends Hargrave McElroy and Glenn Bergenfield and finally by her eldest daughter Cate Edwards.

In her eulogy, Cate calls her mom "a consistent source of wisdom," from "'you'll almost always regret prints, but you'll never regret wearing solids' to 'never marry the first boy you date wtihout dating someone else because you would never buy the first pair of shoes you tried on,'" which drew a warm laugh from the mourners.

Cate continues:

I've heard my mother described as full of life and I think that's true, but it's an enormous understatement ... I can think of a hundred examples, but the best example is her devotion to us, her children. She would do anything in the world to protect all of us, no matter what the personal cost was to her and I know that there are so many sacrifices that she made for us that we'll never know about.

But that's why I was lucky to call her my mom. I am who I am today and I will become whoever it is that I will become because she was my mom and the same is true for Jack and Emma Claire. My greatest hope and the greatest ambition I can think of is that we wil each honor her by being the people that she taught us to be and that by doing that, she'll live on in each of us.

It was really hard to think of what to say today because she's usually the one to tell me what to say and also because there just aren't words that are good enough. For many years, my mom's been writing to her children ... for when she passes away. I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm going to read some of that to you:

'I have loved you in the best ways I have known how. I will admit my shortcomings more than you know, for when I was less than I could have been, should have been, you did not get all that you deserved from me. For all I have said about life, I want you to know that all I ever really neede dwas yoy, your love, your presence, to make my life ocmplete. You are a complete joy to me. I hope you will always know that. Wherever I am, wherever you are, I have my arms wrapped around you.'

Cate ends her eulogy by relaying that she and her siblings always ended every conversation with their mother with "I love you more" and they would try to say it last, but Elizabeth always won that competition. Cate says, "Today I have the honor of being the last to say, 'Mom, I really, really love you more.""

It was a beautiful eulogy and a fitting tribute to a remarkable woman. Rest in peace, Elizabeth Edwards.