President Joe Biden attended an early morning mass Saturday to mark the anniversary of the death of his first wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car crash.
Surrounded by family members — including wife Jill, son Hunter, and multiple grandchildren — Biden worshiped at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church near his Wilmington, Del. home.
He then led family members to the churchyard graves of Neilia Biden and baby Naomi, who was 13 months old at the time of the accident.
Little Beau Biden, Hunter’s 21-month-old son, toddled alongside his father as the family left the church for the graveside visit.
Joe Biden was a new senator-elect on Dec. 18, 1972 when Neilia packed their three children into the family car to buy a Christmas tree. She and Naomi were killed when they were broadsided by a tractor-trailer, and sons Hunter, then 3, and Beau were both seriously injured.
The tragedy — along with Beau’s brain cancer death in 2015 — has haunted the president, who speaks often about his grief and how it transformed him into a compassionate civil servant.
Hunter Biden has battled drug addiction and has been scrutinized for shady foreign business deals in China and Ukraine.
