Joe Biden's son, Beau, dies of brain cancer

Joe Biden and his family have suffered from very tragic deaths and injuries, and it is very sad that another of his children has just died, so promising, so young:

(NYT) WASHINGTON — Joseph R. Biden III, the former attorney general of Delaware and the eldest son of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., has died of brain cancer, his father announced on Saturday. The younger Mr. Biden was 46...In a statement Saturday night, the vice president said: “In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.”

In 2010, the younger Mr. Biden, known as Beau, had suffered what officials described as a mild stroke. Three years later, he was admitted to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after what White House officials described at the time as “an episode of disorientation and weakness.” Mr. Biden’s death marks a second tragic loss for the vice president, whose first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident in 1972 when the station wagon they were driving in to go Christmas shopping was hit by a tractor-trailer. Beau Biden and his brother, Hunter, were also injured in the crash, but both survived.

A popular Democratic politician in his home state who was known to be very close to his father, Mr. Biden served two terms as Delaware’s top law enforcement official before announcing last year that he would not run for a third term so he could make a bid for governor in 2016. But Mr. Biden’s health had apparently declined in recent weeks, and he was taken to Walter Reed on May 20. A handsome, energetic politician whose broad smile mirrored that of his father, Mr. Biden appeared to be a natural to follow his father’s path toward national political success. A lawyer by training, Mr. Biden joined the Delaware National Guard in 2003, serving as a major in the Judge Advocate General Corps. His unit was deployed to Iraq in 2008, while his father was running for vice president.

In a short, emotional speech introducing his father at the 2008Democratic National Convention in Denver, Mr. Biden recalled the tragedy that had touched his family, describing the moments after the crash. “One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our side. We, not the Senate, were all he cared about,” Mr. Biden said. “He decided not to take the oath of office. He said, ‘Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can’t get another father.’ However, great men like Ted Kennedy, Mike Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey — men who had been tested themselves — convinced him to serve. So he was sworn in, in the hospital, at my bedside.”

Mr. Biden is survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children. President Obama said in a statement that he was grieving for the vice president and his family. “For all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder, nothing made him happier, nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family,” Mr. Obama said. “Just like his dad.” Mr. Obama called the vice president “one of the strongest men” he had ever known and offered a quote from the poet, William Butler Yeats. “I have believed the best of every man,” Yeats wrote, “and find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher.” “Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/us/politics/joseph-r-biden-iii-vice-presidents-son-beau-dies-at-46.html

So sad. Didn't Joe Biden already get more than his fair share of heartbreak?

May his son RIP

Jasmo said:
Joe Biden and his family have suffered from very tragic deaths and injuries, and it is very sad that another son has just died, so promising, so young:

A loss for Delaware, too. (For a 9-year-old boy living two miles away, the 1972 crash was an early, affecting jolt of mortality.)

From the song "The Sinking of the Reuben James"

"The worst of men must fight

And the best of men must die"

Awful. May he RIP

Terrible. Lovely (and apt) choice of Yeats by Obama... well done Mr. President.

Anyone know what type of brain cancer he was diagnosed with?

This is such sad news. He was so young!

Incredibly sad. RIP.

Very sad.

.

Just for clarity, Both Beau and his brother,Hunter, survived that car crash. The child who died, along with her mother, Neilia Biden, was 13 month old daughter, Naomi.
Having experienced the sudden death of our 49 year old son last year, I know the enormous grief felt by parents who bury a child -- but when it is an adult child, it just feels so against nature's order. They are supposed to bury their parents! I will pray for the Biden family.

In his darkest hours, Joe Biden demonstrated the stuff he is made of. Well before the tragic loss of his son, Beau, I had wondered why Biden was nicknamed "Amtrak Joe" in Congress. Here's the wikipedia explanation:

"To be at home every day for his young sons,[50] Biden began the practice of commuting every day by Amtrak train for 1½ hours each way from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, D.C., which he continued to do throughout his Senate career.[13] In the aftermath of the accident, he had trouble focusing on work, and appeared to just go through the motions of being a senator. In his memoirs, Biden notes that staffers were taking bets on how long he would last.[20][51] A single father for five years, Biden left standing orders that he be interrupted in the Senate at any time if his sons called.[45] In remembrance of his wife and daughter, Biden does not work on December 18, the anniversary of the accident.[

Jeez, his staff were a bunch of compassionate folks (NOT). Betting on how long he would last? Wow.

I feel so bad for that family. They have had far too much to deal with.

Were they betting on how long he would last, or how long he could keep up with the incredible commute every day from DC to Wilmington and back?

Does it matter? Either way it's pretty gross. How about seeing how you could have supported him vs.betting on how long it would take him to fall.

I doubt it was serious betting. The comment came from Biden himself.

Does anyone know if Beau died of the same type of brain tumour that Angelo died of? How terribly sad to lose these two good men.

Brain cancer is so scary. It takes a life so quickly. A friend of mine had it a few years ago. At the time, we thought it was pretty good that he lasted two years after diagnosis.

ParticleMan said:
I doubt it was serious betting. The comment came from Biden himself.

Ah, that makes a difference. Then it was most likely a joke he made himself, and probably there wasn't any actual betting. I feel better about that now.

Sounds very much like Biden to me.

Really nice article:

Family losses frame Vice President Biden’s career

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/beau-biden-vice-presidents-son-dies-of-brain-cancer-at-46/2015/05/31/4198da78-07c6-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html