Overcoming tragedy has shaped Biden, giving him empathy and resilience like no other.
“It will happen.
My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later.”
Can I pay my mortgage?"
“Dot-dot- dot-dot-dash-dash-dash-dash.”
“Sports were as natural to me as speaking was unnatural.”
The pair was married in 1966.
While Biden attended law school at Syracuse University, Neilia taught school.
The couple struggled to make ends meet, but Biden remembers those early years fondly.
In 1968, Biden graduated, ranking 76th in a class of 85 students.
But grades aside, he made his mark while there.
After successfully winning his first elected seat in 1970, the couple set their sights on the U.S. Senate.
But Neilia wouldn’t live to see Joe serve.
Neilia and 1-year-old Naomi both died, while Beau and Hunter sustained injuries and were hospitalized.
“My whole world was altered forever,” Biden said in a 2015Yale commencement speech.
I made it through, with a lot support, and reconstructed my life and my family."
Biden developed a work routine that started with boarding in Wilmington.
“I’d read the papers and make phone calls.
“And by the time I arrived in D.C., I’d be ready to jump right in.”
What do you think, Dad?”
Though Biden proposed to Jill numerous times, she waited until she was certain.
“I really felt that this marriage had to work.
They married in 1977 in a small Catholic ceremony, and his sons stood by them at the altar.
But he ended up dropping out of the contest by September after a plagiarism scandal upended his campaign.
Biden served as senator for a total of 35 years before giving it a second go.
Biden dropped out of the race early after coming in fifth in the Iowa caucuses.
As we now know, third time was apparently a charm for Biden.
Biden accepted, though he reportedly hadn’t thought he was the front-runner.
That is, until Biden appeared on “Meet the Press.”
Now the ball was in Obama’s court, lest he be perceived as lacking courage on the issue.
“I don’t deserve this.
But I know it came from the president’s heart.”
The Presidential medal of Freedom is considered the nation’shighest civilian honor.
Biden joins honorees like Pope John Paul II and Colin Powell in the rare distinction category (perU.S.
News & World Report).
He became Delaware’s Attorney General,befriendingthen-California Attorney General Kamala Harris at the time.
In 2008, he hit the campaign trail for Biden and Obama and spoke at their Democratic National Convention.
Beau set his sights on becoming Delaware’s next governor.
But at the time, health issues were already plaguing him.
After suffering a stroke in 2010, he was diagnosed with brain cancer three years later.
Beaupassed awayin 2015 at 46, and was survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children.
In November 2020, Biden achieved that lifelong dream byoverwhelmingly winningboth the popular and electoral votes.
Come see me.”
According toThe Guardian, doctors credit his workout routines and abstinence from alcohol and tobacco to keeping him spry.
Life expectancy has alsoincreased since the ’60s, so older presidents and politicians shouldn’t be all that surprising.
