One dark morning some 18 years ago, I awakened to find my late wife lying dead across our bed, four weeks after her cancer had been diagnosed. It was a sudden, devastating loss for me, a trauma that shattered my world and from which I have never completely recovered. Its terrible legacy is a dread that pervades my existence--a terror of losing another loved one (my current wife, a child) from which I am never free.
Joe Biden is an example of what I have called a "sibling in the same darkness." His world, too, was shattered by traumatic loss--the tragic deaths of his wife and child in a car accident when he was just beginning as a newly elected senator.
Biden has been harshly criticized and publicly shamed in the media for his strong reaction to the danger of a swine flu pandemic. He is an emotional man, and it is inconceivable to me that his existence, too, would not be dominated by a dread of further losses and tragedies. And so, media, when he has an especially intense emotional reaction to the threat of a catastrophic, lethal pandemic, please give him a little slack. He is a man who knows first-hand the traumas inflicted by sudden deaths and losses.
Seven years ago I brought home the flu from the hospsital where I worked, a run of the mill variety. My 20 year old daughter caught it from me and we both contracted a secondary pneumonia. She died in her sleep a few weeks later, and I am here writing you.
It might seem irrational, or somehow unpatriotic for Biden to indicate his protective advice and concern to his family in public. I see it quite the other way. It shows that Joe is Human, and that he is made of the same stuff as you and I, and for many of the same reasons. I am supposed to visit Cancun with relatives next week, ... and I am inclined to follow Joe's advice, much as I would love to be with them.
I lost two important people in my life within 3 months of eachother when I was 14. My Father died of cancer and my boyfriend died in a car accident. I understand as well, and have dealt with the same fears for over 20 years now as well. It really does completely alter the way you live, and how you perceive situations.
At least it gives one a tremendous appreciation for loved ones. Not a day goes by that I am not eternally thankful for those I love in my life. It also gives one greater compassion as well.