Best Story and Photo About Joe Biden's Mom

Surfing through a raft of Biden family photos, I found this picture of Senator Biden's mom at one of her son's book signings in 2007. 

My own 87-year-old mom currently is in the hospital, so I guess the sheer "momness" of that little kiss on her son's head really got to me.  (I have a real high sap content when it comes to.... oh, just about everything.)  Joe's Mom kissed him goodbye today in the driveway before he got in the car to leave for Springfield, Illinois, and after Joe kissed and hugged all his grandchildren, he did a little back track, searching out his mom again for one more kiss.

And then I read this story about his mother, as told in Senator Biden's book, Promises to Keep.  Seems that Jean Biden may be responsible for some of the Senator's feistyness:

Joe Biden is getting ready for an eighth-grade dance at a new school, but he's wearing his father's dress shirt and doesn't have cuff links. No problem: His mother, Jean, runs down to the basement and comes up with two pairs of nuts and bolts and fastens them to the borrowed French cuffs.

Biden balks. "The kids will make fun of me," he says.

"Now look, Joey," his mom says, "if anybody says anything to you about these nuts and bolts you look them right in the eye and say, 'Don't you have a pair of these?' "

So, when the first kid mean enough to make fun of the new kid with nuts and bolts for cuff links makes some smartass remark, Joe, recalling his mother's advice, looks his tormenter in the eye and says "You don't have a pair of these?"

There's a silence, then the bully replies, "Yeah, yeah. Of course, I got a pair of those."

Here's to Joey and his mom!  And to deftly fending off all the bullies who will rain down their ugliness in the days ahead.

Comments

[pinkbunny]

That's a great story and insight into his relationship with his Mom. I just saw the same clip of him saying goodbye to his family, and it was a very touching scene.