周日，乔·拜登总统和他的家人标志着一个庄严的周年纪念字体50年前，他的第一任妻子Neilia和他们的小女儿Naomi死于车祸。
白宫说，拜登和第一夫人吉尔·拜登参加了他们家在特拉华州威尔明顿的白兰地酒教堂圣约瑟夫的“私人家庭纪念弥撒”。
随总统同行的记者称，之后，拜登一家去了邻近的墓地。内莉亚、内奥米和总统的大儿子博·拜登谁死于脑癌2015年，都埋在那里。
周日，与拜登总统一起出席的还有孙子纳奥米、芬尼根、蔡美诗、娜塔莉和亨特·拜登，女儿艾什莉·拜登和儿子亨特·拜登，他们在1972年的致命车祸中受伤，当时内莉亚·拜登带着她的孩子外出度假购物。
据旅行社说，周日，其中两名家庭成员带着大花圈去了教堂墓地。
乔·拜登的妻子、女儿和大儿子的去世龙塑造了他对待悲伤和同情的方式他说。1972年的崩盘，在他赢得第一次参议员竞选数周后，也部分定义了他在国会的职业生涯。
“我在华盛顿招聘员工时，接到了一个第一响应者的电话。他们让一个年轻漂亮的女人接电话。她太紧张了，她说，“你得回家来。发生了一起事故。拜登在2020年竞选期间在爱荷华州牛顿市的一次活动中回忆道:“一辆拖拉机拖车撞了你的妻子和三个孩子，当时他们正在购物。”。
“我的妻子被杀了，我的女儿也被杀了，”他接着说。“要不是《生死关头》和一个救援队救了他们的命，我的两个儿子也不会在这里。”
事故发生后，博和亨特·拜登受了重伤。他们的父亲在医院病床边宣誓成为参议员。
坠机后不久，时任总统理查德·尼克松打电话给乔·拜登，根据一段录音在尼克松总统图书馆。“我知道这对你来说是非常悲惨的一天，但我想让你知道，我们白宫的所有人都在想念你，为你和你的两个孩子祈祷，”尼克松说。
“我非常感激，”乔·拜登告诉他。谈到乔·拜登的妻子，尼克松接着说，“我敢肯定，从现在起，她会一直关注着你。祝你好运。”
在此后的几十年里，乔·拜登坦率地讲述了悲伤对他的影响，以及这种经历如何帮助他与他人的损失联系起来——以及由此产生的痛苦、愤怒和悲伤的洪流。
他感同身受的轶事多年来一直占据头条，许多在他2020年总统竞选期间再次出现。就在选举前不到一个月，2002年乔·拜登给一名妇女的道歉信在他的办公室继续给她已故的丈夫写信后迅速传播开来。
他在信中写道:“我从自己的经历中知道，在这样一个时刻，一句话可能意味着什么，但我知道，尽管这很难让人相信，但时间确实会愈合伤口。”。
在2020年史蒂芬·科拜尔的深夜节目中，他将自己的个人经历与政治工作联系起来，特别是在这个国家与新冠肺炎·疫情斗争的时候。
“总统的角色就是说，‘悲伤。悲伤是有原因的。你损失很大，”他接着说。“但总有一天，你要提醒自己，只是要提醒自己，总有一天，你会想起你的丈夫、妻子、儿子、女儿、妈妈或爸爸，你会在流泪之前微笑起来。”"
President Biden marks 50th anniversary of car crash that killed first wife, baby daughter
President Joe Biden and his family on Sunday marked a solemn anniversary: 50 years since a car crash killed his first wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter, Naomi.
The White House said Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended a "private family memorial Mass" at St Joseph on the Brandywine, their family's church in Wilmington, Delaware.
Afterward, according to reporters traveling with the president, the Bidens went to the adjoining cemetery. Neilia, Naomi and Beau Biden, the president's older son who died of brain cancer in 2015, are all buried there.
Joining President Biden on Sunday were grandchildren Naomi, Finnegan, Maisy, Natalie and Hunter Biden, daughter Ashley Biden and son Hunter Biden, who was injured along with his older brother in the deadly wreck in 1972 that occurred while Neilia Biden had taken her kids out holiday shopping.
On Sunday, two of the family members carried large wreaths with them to the church cemetery, according to the travel pool.
The death of Joe Biden's wife, daughter and older son have long shaped his approach to grief and empathy, he has said. The 1972 crash, weeks after he won his first Senate race, also partially defined his career in Congress.
"I was down in Washington hiring staff and I got a phone call from a first responder. They put a pretty young woman on the phone. She was so nervous, she said, 'You gotta come home. There's been an accident. A tractor trailer hit your wife and your three children while they were shopping,'" Biden recalled at an event in Newton, Iowa, during his 2020 campaign.
"My wife was killed and my daughter was killed," he continued then. "And my two boys, but for the jaws of life and a rescue crew saving their life, would not have been around either."
Beau and Hunter Biden were seriously injured after the wreck. Their dad took his oath as a senator by their hospital bedsides.
Shortly after the crash, then-President Richard Nixon called Joe Biden, according to a recording at Nixon's presidential library. "I know this is a very tragic day for you, but I wanted you to know that all of us here at the White House were thinking about you and praying for you and also for your two children," Nixon said.
"I appreciate that very much," Joe Biden told him. Nixon went on to say, of Joe Biden's wife, "I'm sure that she'll be watching you from now on. Good luck to you."
In the decades since, Joe Biden has spoken candidly of what grief did to him and how that experience helped him relate to others' loss -- to the torrent of anguish, anger and sadness that results.
Anecdotes of his empathy have drawn headlines over the years, with many resurfaced during his 2020 presidential campaign. Just under a month before the election, a 2002 apology letter Joe Biden sent to a woman -- after his office continued to send letters to her late husband -- went viral.
"I know from my experience how little words can mean at such a time but I know, as hard as it can be to believe, that time does heal," he wrote to her.
In an appearance on Stephen Colbert's late-night show in 2020, he connected his personal experience to his political work, particularly as the country grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent Stories from ABC News
"The role of the presidency is to say, 'Grieve. There's a reason to grieve. You've had great loss,'" he said then. "'But there will come a time, remind yourself, just be reminded that the time will come when you'll think of your husband, wife, son, daughter, mom or dad, and you'll get a smile to your lips before you get a tear to your eye.'"
