There are few things that challenge the resilience of our faith and devotion more than death. Meghan McCain, one of the co-hosts of “The View,” has spoken openly about her own Christian faith and how her father’s death challenged her beliefs.
So when Dr. Jill Biden, wife of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, appeared Wednesday on the ABC talk show, McCain asked Biden how she dealt with the death of her stepson Beau Biden, who died in 2015 of the same kind of brain cancer that claimed the life of the late Sen. John McCain in August of last year.
Biden candidly admitted her own faith was “shaken” after Beau’s death.
“I thought, ‘How could this happen?’” she said. “And so, actually for the last couple of years, I haven’t been able to go to church, I haven’t been able to pray.”
But something shifted for the former second lady this weekend. During a campaign event at a predominantly black church in South Carolina, she recalled, a woman put her hand on her hand and said she wanted to be Biden’s “prayer partner.”
“I thought, ‘Prayer partner? What’s a prayer partner?’” Biden said. “But I thought it was so kind and I thought that maybe God was saying to me, ‘Hey, Jill. It’s been four years. Come back. Come back.’”
She told McCain the experience was “life changing.”
McCain has frequently referenced her close relationship with the Biden family. In late April, when Joe Biden visited “The View,” McCain asked the former vice president if coping with enormous loss ever becomes easier.
The 76-year-old politician said it does.
“There will come a time when you walk by that closet or smell that fragrance or sit out on the porch at that ranch,” he told McCain, referring to her father, who was also a personal friend. “You’re gonna get a smile before you get a tear, and that’s when you’ll know you’re gonna make it.”
Speaking of his own son, Joe Biden said he often thinks about Beau.
“I hope he’s proud of me,” the Democrat said.