Promise Me, Dad:, by Joe Biden: on Principles & Values


Joe Biden: Son Beau died of brain cancer despite experimental surgery

[When adult son Beau got ill with brain cancer], we had been drawn to M.D. Anderson by the reputation of Dr. Raymond Sawaya, a neurosurgeon who was regarded among the best in the world at a procedure called awake craniotomy. The patient was actually conscious through most of the surgery. Dr Sawaya had removed a tumor slightly larger than a golf ball, he explained, & Beau had come through without a single complication.; except for the scar on the left side of his head, he would be as he was before. His speech, his cognition, and his motor skills were unharmed. But the news was not all good. The tumor was slightly diffuse, and Sawaya had not been able to get all of it. Then the news got worse. Much worse. The lab results, Dr. Sawaya explained, confirmed the medical team's expectations: Beau's tumor was definitely glioblastoma. Stage IV. It felt like I had been knocked down. I reached for my rosary and asked God to give me the strength to handle this. [Beau died a year later.]
Source: Promise Me, Dad,by Joe Biden, p. 28-30 Nov 14, 2017

Joe Biden: Memory of lost family members will someday bring a smile

I told [a grieving victim of sudden loss of a family member] what I try to tell everybody: There will come a time when you'll go riding by a field that you both loved, or see a flower, or smell the fragrance of his suit when he took it off and hung it in the closet, or you'll hear a song, or you'll look at the way someone walks, and it will all come back. But someday down the line, God knows when, you'll realize it doesn't make you want to cry. It makes you smile. "The time will come when the memory will bring a smile to your lips," I would tell everyone in that situation, "before it brings tears to your eyes." That WILL happen, I assured her. And that is when you know that you've turned a corner.
Source: Promise Me, Dad,by Joe Biden, p. 54 Nov 14, 2017

  • The above quotations are from Promise Me, Dad
    A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose,
    by Joe Biden    .
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Page last updated: Apr 11, 2019