Joe Biden by Beatrice Gormley (free ebook reader for iphone TXT) 📕

they drove to the Nantucket ferry in a car caravan. But these days, they all flew to the island on Air Force Two, the plane that transports the vice president of the US.

The 2014 Thanksgiving gathering was different.Beau refused to talk about his illness, and he never complained. “All good,” he was in the habit of saying. “All good.” Beau didn’t want anyone to give in to unhappy feelings around him. “Dad!” he reminded Joe, who was gazing at him sadly. “Don’t look at me like that.”

But Joe and the rest of the Bidens couldn’t help worrying. Beau was thin and walking awkwardly, and he got tired quickly. The radiation and chemotherapy had weakened his right arm and leg, and now he had trouble remembering the names of things. Instead of saying, “Pass the dinner rolls,” he’d say, “Pass the, you know, the brown thing you put the butter on.”

Joe had originally planned to run for president in 2016. If so, he needed to ramp up his campaign in 2015—the earlier, the better. But now he thought he should wait and see how Beau’s treatment went.

However, in a private talk during the Thanksgiving vacation, Beau and Hunter disagreed with Joe. They believed that their father was by far the best candidate. “You’ve got to run. I want you to run,” Beau said.

Beau continued to work as Delaware’s attorney general through the end of his term, January 2015. In February, the doctors discovered that in spite of chemotherapy and radiation, the tumor in his brain was growing and spreading. Beau decided to keep on fighting with more surgery and an experimental treatment.

The Biden family would do anything for Beau, and they all worked together to support him. Hallie, his wife, made sure that their children, Natalie and Hunter, were well and safe. Jill, his mom, looked out for the smallest details of Beau’s comfort.

Hunter, his brother and closest friend, was the person Beau could confide in as he confronted the painful questions of life and death. Ashley, Beau’s adoring sister, met him at the hospital in Philadelphia and stayed with him through his therapy sessions. Ashley’s husband, Howard, was a head and neck surgeon himself. He was in constant touch with Beau’s doctors, and he kept his professional eye on Beau. He was also able to interpret the doctors’ medical jargon for the family.

Joe Biden wanted nothing more than to be with his son as Beau fought for his life. But he was the vice president of the United States, with heavy responsibilities. President Obama was counting on him. And most important, Joe knew that Beau himself would be deeply disappointed in his father if he slacked off on his duty to his country.

So Joe continued to work, including overseas travel, sometimes with a grandchild or two. One of the privileges of being vice president was that Biden could take his grandchildren all over the world. Hunter’s daughter Finnegan, now sixteen, was especially eager for international adventures, and she was “Pop’s” companion for a trip to Europe early in February 2015.

Biden’s main reason for this trip was a conference in Munich, Germany. The US and its western European allies were worried about Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine, in spite of the cease-fire agreement signed in September 2014. In his speech to the conference, Biden told the assembled dignitaries that the US would support Ukraine with military aid if necessary. Senator John McCain, who was head of the US congressional delegation at the conference, told Biden afterward that it was the best speech he’d heard Joe give.

At the beginning of March, it was discovered that Beau’s experimental treatment for cancer had failed. Beau took this in calmly, then decided to try more surgery and a combination of two other treatments. One was so new that it had never before been used on humans.

Joe kept on working, so hard that he developed pneumonia himself. But he continued to work. He flew with Jill to Guatemala for a conference with the leaders of that country, El Salvador, and Honduras. Because of the poverty and violence in those countries, a surge of refugees, especially children, were arriving in the US. Biden and the Central American leaders agreed on a plan that provided hope for stabilizing their countries.

Upon Biden’s return to the US, the new Iraqi prime minister called on him for help in resisting an invasion. Biden had made many trips to Iraq over the years, first as senator and then as vice president, since President Bush had launched the Iraq War in 2003. And because Beau had risked his life serving in Iraq with the National Guard, Biden felt a personal concern for that country.

Toward the end of March, Biden flew to Houston, where Beau would undergo his next surgery. Joe could see that the doctors and nurses had a special concern for his son. And Beau was truly and lovingly supported by his family, especially Jill; and his wife, Hallie; and Hunter. Ashley was there with her big brother too.

Joe stayed in Houston for two days after the surgery. Visiting the hospital once more before he left, he found Beau up and walking. “It’s all good, Dad,” said Beau. But Joe hated to leave him. During the flight back to Washington, he wrote in his diary: I feel so goddam lonely.

The new experimental treatment seemed to help Beau, and in April he was able to go home to Wilmington. One day he and Hallie brought their children to Joe and Jill’s for a special event. Jill had written a children’s book, Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops, especially for the children of parents serving in the military overseas. A reading of the book was being recorded for Reading Rainbow. Ten-year-old Natalie, eight-year-old Hunter, Jill, and Joe took turns reading aloud for the visiting TV crew.

At times during the reading Joe struggled not to break down, but he felt he had to keep strong for the rest of his family, as well as