Vice President Joe Biden has returned home to Wilmington, Delaware, where his 92-year-old mother, Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Biden, has taken seriously ill.

Biden’s family was gathering there, and the vice president excused himself from planned meetings at the White House with President Obama as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
 
More than many, the 67-year-old Biden appreciates how lucky he is to have had his mother so long.

His sons lost their mother, his first wife, in an auto accident in 1972.

When he accepted the vice presidential nomination at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Biden noted that his father, Joseph Biden Sr., had died in 2002 but that his mother was still there to see her son nominated.

“God, I wish that my dad was here tonight,” Biden said. “But I thank God and I'm grateful that my mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, is here tonight. Mom, I love you."

She was there, as well, to see her son sworn in as vice president a year ago.