The Poignant Promise Joe Biden Made To Beau Before His Death

Despite dying from brain cancer in 2015, Beau Biden has remained very much alive in father Joe Biden's memory. As a member of the Delaware Army National Guard, Beau was deployed to Iraq in 2008 as a major in the Judge Advocate General Corps, serving in active duty until late 2009, according to Town & Country. Although the president himself never served, Beau's military record explains why Joe ostensibly never fails to say a variation of "God bless our troops" to end every speech. (Likewise, first lady Dr. Jill Biden's 2012 children's book was titled "Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops.") "Every morning I get up ... not a joke ... I think to myself, 'Is he proud of me?'" Biden revealed during a January 2020 appearance on "Morning Joe," according to Business Insider.

On February 2, in an effort indubitably tied to his late son, the president re-launched his 2016 initiative "Cancer Moonshot" — a directive aimed at cutting down deaths from cancer by half in the next 25 years, as well as enhancing the quality of life for cancer patients and their families after diagnosis. One day later, the POTUS shared an emotionally charged story from Beau's last moments at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

President Joe Biden made a promise on late son Beau Biden's deathbed to not give up on his career dreams. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on February 3, Joe recalled that, in Beau's last moments, his son said, "Give me your word as a Biden that you're going to stay engaged," according to People, which Joe then did. "He knew, like a lot of you — what you've been through — the first instinct is you just want to curl up in a ball and just leave, no longer do what you've done your whole life," the president told the audience.

Beau, with brother and "closest friend" Hunter Biden present at the time, also told his father, "'Dad, I want you to know I'm not afraid." Joe added, "We were told he was — he was going to die within minutes or ... an hour." The president said, "He looked at me, and he said, 'Dad, promise me, promise me, Dad, you're going to stay involved.' I said, 'I'll be involved. I'll be — I'll be good, Beau.'"

This wasn't the first time Joe has shared this heart-wrenching story of Beau, having titled his 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose," which, according People, included a collection of exchanges between Joe and Beau during the latter's final days.