(Daily Mail) In December 1972, Joe Biden‘s life was picture perfect.
At 30 years old, he had just been elected to represent Delaware in Congress, making him the second youngest senator in history.
He had a beautiful wife of six years, Neilia. They shared three healthy children – sons Beau, 4, Hunter, 3, and 13-month-old daughter Naomi.
In fact, their good fortune was so great that Biden’s young wife admitted it made her nervous.
Sitting by the fire in their Wilmington home writing Christmas cards together, she turned to him, filled with dread.
‘What’s going to happen, Joey?’ she asked. ‘Things are too good.’
In December 1972, Joe Biden’s life was picture perfect, he had a beautiful loving wife of six years, Neilia and three healthy young children – sons, Beau, 4, and Hunter, 3, and 13-month-old daughter Naomi
But in December 1972, all of that changed, when Biden’s wife and daughter were killed in a horrific car crash
Days later, newly-elected Biden was working in Washington DC, interviewing prospective staff, when the phone rang.
‘They put a pretty young woman on the phone. She was so nervous,’ Biden recalled nearly 50 years later at a rally for his 2020 presidential campaign, ‘She said: “You gotta come home. There’s been an accident.”‘
At approximately 2.30 pm on Monday, December 18, Neilia had been driving along a suburban road with her three children on the way to pick up a Christmas tree in Hockessin, Delaware, when she crept through a stop sign directly into the path of a speeding tractor-trailer.
Her Chevrolet station wagon was struck side-on and hurled 150 feet into an embankment.
‘Biden For Senate’ campaign flyers that were still piled in the car’s trunk filled the air and were strewn all over the roadway, along with shards of glass and twisted debris.
Neilia, also 30, and Naomi were rushed to Wilmington General Hospital, but it was too late.
They were declared dead on arrival.
Beau and Hunter were severely injured, but alive. Beau’s leg had been broken. Hunter’s skull had been fractured.
Beau and Hunter were hospitalized after the crash, and Biden was sworn in as a Delaware senator from the chapel in the hospital where they were being treated
+9
View gallery
Beau was wheeled into the small chapel attached to the hospital and Hunter was perched on the side of the bed as their father was officially sworn in
In that instant, Biden became a widower and a single father with two boys under the age of five.
He fell into a state of deep grief and depression, later revealing he even contemplated suicide.
‘I thought about what it would be like just to go to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and just jump off and end it all,’ Biden told CNN for a 2020 documentary about his political life.
By all accounts, Neilia was a great love.
They had met in 1963, both aged 20, while Biden was on Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale.
He and his friends were bored and decided to take an impromptu trip to Nassau, where Neilia was holidaying.
Neilia’s wealthy Republican parents were staying at a fancy beach resort that Biden, who grew up the son of working-class parents, could never afford. But he and his pals had stolen towels with the hotel logo and bluffed their way into the resort pool.
Spotting Neilia, Biden said it was love at first sight; but he had competition, as his friends fancied her too. So, they flipped a coin to decide who got to speak to her.
Biden won.
He took Neilia for dinner that night and told her he was going to marry her. Three years later, they wed.
He was infatuated, describing her in a 1974 interview as ‘my very best friend, my greatest ally, my sensuous lover.’
After her death, he considered resigning from public office to focus on raising his boys but Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield persuaded him not to.
Two and a half weeks after the crash, a media circus descended on the hospital where Hunter and Beau were still being treated for their injuries.
Beau was wheeled into the small chapel attached to the hospital and Hunter was perched on the side of the bed as their father was officially sworn in as senator.
By all accounts, Neilia was the great love of his life. They had met in 1963 while on Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale
