I work with a non-profit organization for STEM education for students leaving high school and starting college. During our summer program, we spend three days in Washington, touring NASA, the Smithsonian and other scientific sites. We also have a luncheon at the US Senate, sponsored by whoever is the current senior senator from West Virginia. This organization has been around since 1963.
Sometime in the early 2000s, I attended the luncheon, and manned the guest book (I'm the political junkie on the board of trustees, and I can recognize most of the senators). Joe Biden came a bit late, so we pulled the two delegates from Delaware out of the luncheon and away from the speeches, to get a grip-and-grin photo. But Joe looked at my nametag and said, "You're a Jill! My wife's name is Jill!" And he started to chat with me and the two young folk from Delaware. When he found out I was from West Virginia, he started to tell stories, about Jennings Randolph (who served in the Senate from the early 1950s to the late 1970s) and Robert Byrd and Nick Rahall (at that time, a WV congressman and former aide to Byrd). He told me about Byrd and Rahall coming to his wife and daughter's funeral, with no advance notice. Byrd came because it was the right thing to do for a fellow member of the Senate, even though Biden had not yet been sworn in.
We probably talked for 20 minutes. He was charming and funny and he looked you in the eye when he talked. He asked questions, too -- it was not a monologue. I've had the chance to chat with a lot of senators over the years (and have my butt patted by Strom Thurmond!), but Joe Biden has always been one of my favorites. Not just one of my favorite senators, but one of my favorite people outside the realm of family and close friends.
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