People are leaving flowers and notes outside Vice President Joe Biden’s house in Washington to express their condolences following the death of his son, Beau Biden, last weekend.
Washington, D.C., is better known for cynicism than for sympathy, but at least some of its residents have stopped by Biden’s house at Observatory Circle to pay their respects since Beau’s death on Saturday.
Two days of rain in the federal capital have left the notes sodden and mostly unreadable, but some words are still legible.
One says, “I always admired that you took the Amtrak train,” referring to Biden’s practice of commuting by rail between Washington and Delaware during the decades in which he represented the coastal state in the Senate.
Another card bears a prayer inspired by St. John Paul II, part of which reads, “Oh God…grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching, we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ…”
Ten bunches of flowers, plus the cards and the notes, make a makeshift memorial around and on top of one of a pair of big naval anchors that decorate the entrance to the Naval Observatory compound, which includes the official vice presidential residence.
Beau Biden, who had been state attorney general, died of brain cancer at the age of 46. He will lie in honor at Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, there will be a viewing at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in Wilmington, Del., and it is there, too, that there will be a funeral Mass on Saturday morning.
