The ‘Promise Me, Dad’ drive
In this picture taken on January 20, 2009 Joe Biden (left) is sworn in as the Vice President of the US by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (not in photo) as the Biden children Beau (right), Hunter (centre), and Ashley watch in Washington.
What you need to know:
- In 2013, Beau was diagnosed with glioblastoma — a particularly aggressive brain cancer. He died at 46.
- At the time of his death, the former attorney-general of Delaware was preparing to run for governor.
In his memoir, Promise Me, Dad, US President Joe Biden narrates how he faced his son Beau Biden’s diagnosis, suffering and death from brain cancer. He recalls how Beau always urged him forward, not by word or thought alone but through service and the power of his example.
Biden writes that his son wanted him to remain engaged in public service. Of course, that engagement led right back to the campaign trail with Biden’s decision to run for president. And Biden did what Beau wanted him to do: Run for president.
Beau was usually the last person in the room with Biden before important campaign events. He would grab his father’s arm just before he walked onstage and pull him back toward him until he was looking into his eyes, urging him to remember home base.
In December 1972, just a few weeks after Biden won the Delaware Senate election, his wife Neilia and their year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident. Their sons Beau and Hunter, only three and two, survived and their father took his oath of office at the hospital where they were recovering.
Serving others
In 2013, Beau was diagnosed with glioblastoma — a particularly aggressive brain cancer. He died at 46. At the time of his death, the former attorney-general of Delaware was preparing to run for governor.
During his two terms, Attorney-General Beau aggressively went after sexual predators, launching a Child Predator Task Force and enacting laws for tougher prison sentences for offenders. Also, he was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard deployed to Iraq in 2009, serving for a whole year.
Even before he fell ill and through his illness, Beau showed the value of living with purpose and serving others. He kept his sense of purpose to the end; he exhibited courage. He was determined to serve a purpose greater than his pleasure and advantage.
Beau went into politics because, for him, it was the right thing to do; it was the clearest path to helping as many people as he possibly could. According to him, he learnt from his father that public life was not about serving self; rather, it was about the privilege to serve those who can’t serve themselves.
Mr Obonyo is a public policy analyst. [email protected].
