Update: Read Joe Biden’s story on loss and finding love again in the first chapter of The Ultimate Dating Guide for Widowers or listen to audio version at the video above.

My latest post is up on the OpentoHope blog. It's a brief look on how Sen. Joe Biden, at the age of 30, lost is first wife a month after being elected to the U.S. Senate, overcame his grief, and put his life back together. You can read it below or here. On November 7, 1972 a relatively unknown lawyer named Joe Biden pulled off a big political upset. By just over 3,000 votes he defeated two-term incumbent U.S. Senator J. Caleb Boggs and, at age 30, became the sixth youngest Senator in U.S. history.

Despite the amazing victory, he almost never took the oath of office. On December 18, 1972 while Biden was in Washington D.C. looking at his new office, his wife, Neilia, took their three children shopping for a Christmas tree. They were involved in a fatal automobile accident. Neilia and his infant daughter, Naomi, were killed. His two sons, Hunter and Beau, were critically injured.

His life suddenly and unexpectedly changed, Biden suddenly found himself as a 30-year-old widower and single father. He also found himself filled with anger and doubt. In his memoir Promises to Keep Biden wrote, "I began to understand how despair led people to just cash it in; how suicide wasn't just an option but a rational option ... I felt God had played a horrible trick on me, and I was angry."

A career in the U.S. Senate suddenly didn't seem that important as being there for his two sons. He considered resigning before even taking the oath of office. Beau recalled his father saying, "Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can't get another father."

Eventually other U.S. Senators like Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy convinced Biden to take the job the people of Delaware elected him to do. In January of 1973 he took the oath of office at his sons' hospital bedside. However, because he still wanted to be there for his sons, he gave up his the home he and his late wife were planning to buy in Washington D.C. and commuted by train to and from his home - a practice he still continues.

Still, life wasn't easy for the young Senator. At first he did the least amount of work required for his job. "My future was telescoped into putting one foot in front of the other ... Washington, politics, the Senate had no hold on me," Biden wrote. Senate staffers began placing bets on how long Biden would last.

No one would have blamed Biden for quitting. After all, he has lost half his family. But Biden didn't quit. Despite his grief, Biden he hung on and slowly began rebuilding his shattered life.

It wasn't until 1975, however, when Biden met Jill Jacobs that the pieces really fell into place. Falling in love again renewed Biden's interest in life and politics. "It had given me the permission to be me again," Biden wrote in his memoir. Two years later they married.

With his renewed passion, Biden continued what was to become a successful political career. He was re-elected five times to the Senate. He served as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987-1995 and currently serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In 2008, after a second failed attempt to become the Democrat's presidential nominee, he was asked to be Sen. Barack Obama's Vice Presidential running mate.

"Failure at some point in your life is inevitable but giving up is unforgivable," Biden said during his Vice Presidential acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

It's impossible to say what would have happened to Biden if he had decided to give up.

But he didn't.

For those who have lost a spouse, Joe Biden's story is one of hope. If you continue to put one foot in front of the other, no matter how difficult it may be, there are better days ahead. Despite the challenges and obstacles he faced as a 30-year-old widower, Biden rebuilt his life and his family.

Each day we make the decision to push forward or give up. Each day that decision will bring us closer to rebuilding our lives or falling back into darkness. Though difficult, Biden chose to live again and reaped the rewards of his efforts.

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More widower-related articles by Abel Keogh

As a self-described political junkie, this presidential election has been anything but boring. I watched the primetime Democratic Convention speakers last week and the primetime Republican speakers this week at the expense of finishing my novel. Now with both sides equally energized, this presidential race is going to be a nasty fight all the way to the end which will make it all the more entertaining to watch over the next two months. Now if I can just stop refreshing the Drudge Report, I’ll actually get some writing done.

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As someone who wouldn’t mind making a living as a speech writer, I have to say the best speech from either convention was delivered by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Describing herself as pit bull with lipstick was classic. And her zingers aimed at Barak Obama were good. Best of all, she showed just what a good speaker she is when the teleprompter stopped working and she had to occasionally glance at her notes. She didn’t miss a beat.

Obama’s speech was the second. It was well delivered, well-paced, and he did a good job trying to shed his liberal background and position himself toward the center. He still needs to prove that he can be an equally eloquent and effective speaker without a teleprompter.

McCain and Biden are tied with the most tepid speeches though McCain wins the tie breaker by at least speaking from the heart and sounding genuine – something more rhetorical and polished speakers often have a hard time doing.

Win or lose this November, Palin has a bright political future. If Obama wins, his political career is over in four or eight years – depending on whether or not he’s re-elected. But Palin could easily be the GOP nominee in 2012 and could make a strong case to run again in 2016 as well as define the Republican party the same way Ronald Regan did in the 1980. And should the GOP win this November, watch for a resurgent Hillary Clinton in 2012 who could have the same impact on her party as Palin will in hers.

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