Who was Beau Biden? the deceased son of Democratic candidate Joe Biden

Beau Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, died of brain cancer at the age of 46 in 2015. During Thursday’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) Beau was honored with a video tribute that looked back over his life as a major in the Army National Guard and as Delaware’s attorney general.

Joe Biden regularly speaks with great fondness about his late son, describing him this week as an inspiration. The video included former President Barack Obama delivering Beau’s eulogy and saying, “Some folks may never know that their lives are better because of Beau Biden, but that’s OK.”

“He is the one who wanted me to stay engaged. He was worried that I would not continue to fight for the things I am passionate about, and I am trying to keep that promise,” said Joe Biden in a video during the event.

The tribute video ended with Beau’s appearance at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, were he told the audience that he was not going to be able to be with his father (Joe Biden) during the fall campaign and asked them to “be there for my dad like he was for me.”

In 2010, Beau Biden had a stroke and he had to be in treatment for the next three years at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Doctors removed a lesion from his brain. Sadly, his cancer persisted and he started needing more aggressive treatment.

Beau was only two years old when his mother Neila and sister Noemi were both killed in a car crash. During the 2012 speech at the convention Beau Biden was moved to tears when he spoke about the tragedies his family went through when he was just a child.