http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_70448062ND STOP: SHE SHARES GRIEF WITH PARENTS OF DYING KIDS
By Rachel Cohen
MediaNews
Article Launched: 09/30/2007 01:59:40 AM PDT
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, spoke to an elegant crowd of 400 donors in San Leandro on Saturday evening at the annual fundraising dinner for the George Mark Children's House, which cares for seriously and terminally ill children and their families.
"I feel I come home when I am with people who have been on the path I have been on," Edwards told the crowd. Edwards, who lost her son Wade in an accident when he was 18, said the loss pushed her to become more publicly active.
Earlier Saturday, Edwards appeared in San Jose to deliver the keynote address at the 2007 SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West Leadership Conference.
There, she spoke to an estimated 2,000 hospital, nursing home and home-care workers, and called on President Bush to sign legislation that would expand health insurance for low-income children. Bush has promised to veto the proposal, which he says would be too costly to implement.
Health care "ought to be a right in a country like America," Edwards said to applause from the audience.
The 145,000-member SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West is the largest hospital and health care union in the western United States. John Edwards, who has called for universal health care coverage as part of his campaign platform, was the keynote speaker at the union's 2006 conference.
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