Standing at the front of the line outside Wilmington’s St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on Friday morning, Lois Lipton Parker couldn’t help but remember 1972, when she saw Joe and Beau Biden inside a hospital room beset with tragedy.
Parker was there in the aftermath of the automobile accident that ultimately claimed the lives of Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and the couple’s 18-month-old daughter, Naomi.
On Friday, she was among thousands who came to say goodbye to Beau, the former Delaware attorney general who died of brain cancer on Saturday.
“I’m just devastated by this,” said Parker, who knew Beau when he was just three years old. “I remember seeing Joe in that hospital room, his head in his hands. When I went to hug him, I don’t even think he knew I was there. I wish [the Biden family] could have some privacy today. This is just too much.”
A long line of mourners
By “too much,” she meant the line of mourners which stretched more than a block from a security tent throughout the first of two three-hour Friday viewings inside the stately Catholic church.
Privacy will also be put on hold until after Saturday morning’s funeral, at which President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy.
“It’s extremely sad,” said a volunteer named Maryann who collected condolence and Mass cards in a cardboard box near the security tent featuring eight metal detectors. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Many of those outside St. Anthony’s offered similar stories from their small, close-knit state.
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