Family and friends are gathering Saturday to honor the life of Elizabeth Edwards, who has been praised for her strength amid a series of life tragedies that included the death of a son, a betrayal by her husband and a battle with cancer that eventually led to her death. 
 
 FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2010 file photo, Elizabeth Edwards arrives at the "Stand Up To Cancer" television event at Sony Studios in Culver City, Calif. A family friend on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 said Edwards... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this May 24, 2007 file photo, Elizabeth Edwards, then wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, talks to the media before addressing the Wisconsin Women in Government's 20th Annual... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this March 22, 2007 file photo, Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards, left, listens to his then wife Elizabeth speak about her recurrence of cancer during a news conference in Chapel... (Associated Press) 
 
 A funeral for Edwards will be held Saturday afternoon at Edenton Street United Methodist, a Raleigh church that Edwards turned to after her 16-year-old son Wade died in a car crash in 1996. 
 
 The memorial will bring several political figures, including Sen. John Kerry, who led the Democratic presidential ticket in 2004 that included John Edwards, and Vicki Kennedy, wife of late Sen. Ted Kennedy. 
 
 A number of Democrats from North Carolina will attend, including Gov. Beverly Perdue and U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan. 
 
 Edwards' oldest daughter, 28-year-old Cate, is scheduled to give a eulogy along with two of her mother's longtime friends, Hargrave McElroy and Glenn Bergenfield. John Edwards is not scheduled to speak. The couple had four children together, including 12-year-old Emma Claire and 10-year-old Jack. 
 
 One of the pallbearers, Tyler Highsmith, was in the car Wade Edwards was driving when he died. He and three other pallbearers _ Michael Lewis, Ellis Roberts and Charles Scarantino _ were pallbearers in Wade Edwards' funeral. 
 
 Jennifer Palmieri, who was a senior adviser during John Edwards' presidential campaigns, said the funeral is open to the public because Elizabeth Edwards always insisted on open campaign events _ much to the consternation of staff who wanted to control access. She never wanted tickets issued, even free ones. 
 
 "So it may be a little messy getting folks in the church," but that's how she would have wanted it, Palmieri said. 
 
 Among the people who gathered on a nearby street hours before the funeral was Barbara Fields, a 65-year-old Raleigh resident who never knew Edwards personally but was impressed by how she handled adversity. 
 
 Fields, a 10-year breast cancer survivor who wore a pink scarf with breast cancer logos, said she found comfort in books and speeches by Edwards about the fear and sleepless nights that come with fighting the illness. 
 
 "She just carried herself with a quiet dignity," Fields said. 
 
 Elizabeth Edwards 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. She died on Tuesday. 
 
 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. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report. 

 Elizabeth Edwards's Final Joy: Daughter Cate's Engagement 
 
 In the days before Elizabeth Edwards's doctors told her further cancer treatment was futile , daughter Cate gave her mother the happiest news: She was engaged to longtime sweetheart Trevor Upham.The couple, who met as students at Princeton University, got engaged over Thanksgiving weekend after spending the holiday at the family's Chapel Hill, N.C., home, and sharing a feast prepared by Cate's aunt, Nancy Anania."Elizabeth was thrilled," one close friend told PEOPLE Friday night, on the eve of Edwards's funeral, where Cate, 28, was expected to deliver a eulogy and Upham would serve as pallbearer.Upham, a physician who was a year ahead of Cate at school, often helped Elizabeth Edwards dissect the medical information she got from her oncologist. She would reciprocate by pushing her lotions and potions on him, Upham jokingly told PEOPLE over the summer.He also said Cate, an anti-discrimination lawyer in Washington, and her mother (also a lawyer by training) were alike in many ways: "They have the same quirks, they like the same things. I think they even hold their phones the same way."
– Elizabeth Edwards had a nice moment of cheer in her final days, reports People. Daughter Cate, 28, delivered the news that she and physician/boyfriend Trevor Upham got engaged over Thanksgiving. "Elizabeth was thrilled," a friend tells the magazine. The two met at Princeton, and Upham helped the family unravel the medical information surrounding Elizabeth's cancer. Her funeral is today, and Cate, an anti-discrimination lawyer, will deliver a eulogy, notes AP.