WATCH: Joe Biden Visits Church on 48th Anniversary of Tragic Deaths of His Wife and Their Daughter

President-elect Joe Biden has honored the 48th anniversary of the accident that killed his first wife and their 13-month-old daughter by visiting the church they were buried on Friday.

Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, attended Mass in St. Joeseph on the Brandywine, a Roman Catholic church in Delaware. After the service concluded, the Bidens walked to the gravesite markers and paid their respects.

Biden had just been elected to the Senate, and was in Washington D.C., when his wife, Neilia Biden, and their children, Naomi, Hunter, and Beau, were hit by a tractor-trailer on their way to pick out a Christmas tree in 1972.

Neilia and Naomi did not survive the accident, and while Hunter and Beau did, they were severely injured. Beau later passed away after suffering from a brain tumor.

Beau Biden became a strongly-felt presence on his father’s campaign trail this year, as Biden frequently attributed his good character to his late son, and made curing cancer a key part of his campaign.

“I promise you, if I’m elected president, you’re going to see the single most important thing that changes America—we’re going to cure cancer,” he said at a campaign rally last year.

As Biden ran for president this year, he also connected with a nation facing death and tragedy on a daily basis. Biden addressed those who lost loved ones amid the pandemic directly at several events, often harking back to his own grief. The president-elect’s approach, compared to President Donald Trump’s, who has most recently failed to address a surge in Covid-19 deaths, contributed greatly to his appeal.

Watch above, via ABC 30.