President Biden on Memorial Day visited the grave of his son Beau Biden, a former major in the Delaware Army National Guard, who died seven years ago Monday.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended a half-hour morning mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine in Wilmington, Del. The first lady carried a bouquet of pink flowers as she entered the church.
After the service, the Bidens walked slowly to Beau Biden’s grave in the church cemetery. He died on May 30, 2015.
President Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and his grandchildren joined him at the gravesite.
The presidential motorcade returned to the president’s residence before 8 a.m.
The graveside visit came a day after the Bidens visited Uvalde, Texas, to pay their respects at a memorial site at Robb Elementary School and meet with the families of 21 victims who were killed by an 18-year-old gunman last week.
President Biden also spoke of the pain of losing a child the night of the Texas shooting.
“To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There’s a hollowness in your chest, and you feel like you’re being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out. It’s suffocating. And it’s never quite the same,” he said.
He also lost his one-year-old daughter in a car crash in 1972.