Biden honors the memory of his first wife and baby daughter who died in a 1972 car crash

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday honored the memory of his first wife and baby daughter 52 years after they were killed in a car crash in Delaware.

Biden's wife, Neilia, 30, had taken their kids — 1-year-old daughter Naomi and sons Beau and Hunter — out Christmas tree shopping when the car she was driving was broadsided by a tractor-trailer. Neilia and Naomi were killed. Beau, 3, and Hunter, 2, were gravely injured.

The president, his current wife, Jill, son Hunter and other members of the family attended a private memorial Mass early Wednesday at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church near Biden's home in Delaware. After the service, the family, with Jill Biden holding hands with Hunter's young son, Beau, walked to the cemetery behind the church where the gravesites are located.

Biden speaks often about the personal loss, sharing the story as recently as last week. He told of being in Washington with then-Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., when he got a phone call.

“I got a phone call from my local fire department, telling me there had been an accident,” he said at a White House dinner attended by members of Kennedy's family. "And the poor firewoman they put on the call for me said — I said, ‘How are they?' They said, ‘Uh, uh, um, she’s dead. Your daughter is dead. And I’m not sure your two sons will make it.’”

Biden, who had been elected to the Senate just weeks before the crash, talks about how he almost walked away from his career before it even started. But he took the advice of other senators, was sworn in to office at his sons' hospital bedside and made a daily commute between Delaware and Washington on Amtrak.

Next month, Biden will close the book on a nearly 50-year career in elected politics and public service that includes 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president and four years as president.

His openness about his grief and coping with it, and his ability to empathize with others who have experienced loss, have become one of the hallmarks of his long political career.

Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 and she helped raise Beau and Hunter as if they were her own. Later, she and Biden added daughter Ashley.

Decades after that fatal car crash, Biden, as vice president, navigated through personal loss again when Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at 46. Beau Biden is also buried in the church cemetery.

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden step out of Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden walk from Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden step out of Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and grandson Beau Biden walk from Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Hunter Biden, his wife Melissa Cohen Biden and their son Beau are greeted as they arrive at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed President Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are greeted as they arrive at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Wednesday marks the 52nd anniversary of the car crash that killed Joe Biden's first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

NEW YORK (AP) — The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments sold for more than $5 million at an auction on Wednesday.

Sotheby’s said the 155-pound (52-kilogram) marble slab was acquired by an anonymous buyer who plans to donate it to an Israeli institution.

The New York-based auction house said the final price exceeded the presale estimate of $1 million to $2 million and followed more than 10 minutes of “intense bidding” during the global competition.

The tablet dates from 300 to 800 A.D. and is inscribed with the commandments in Paleo-Hebrew script — the only complete example of its kind from antiquity, according to Sotheby's.

It was unearthed during railroad excavations along the southern coast of Israel in 1913 and was not recognized as historically significant at first.

Sotheby's said the tablet was used as a paving stone at a local home until 1943 when it was sold to a scholar who grasped its significance.

“A tangible link to ancient beliefs that have profoundly shaped global religious and cultural traditions, it serves as a rare testament to history,” the auction house said.

The text inscribed on the slab follows the Biblical verses familiar to Christian and Jewish traditions but omits the third commandment against taking the name of the Lord in vain. It includes a new directive to worship on Mount Gerizim, a holy site specific to the Samaritans, Sotheby's said.

The oldest complete tablet of the Ten Commandments, weighing 115-pounds and approximately 1,500 years old, is displayed at Sotheby's, in New York, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, where it is to be offered for auction in a single lot sale, Dec, 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby's Judaica Specialist, Books & Manuscripts, discusses the oldest complete tablet of the Ten Commandments, weighing 115-pounds and approximately 1,500 years old, that is displayed at Sotheby's, in New York, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, where it is to be offered for auction in a single lot sale, Dec, 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The oldest complete tablet of the Ten Commandments, weighing 115-pounds and approximately 1,500 years old, is displayed at Sotheby's, in New York, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, where it is to be offered for auction in a single lot sale, Dec, 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The oldest complete tablet of the Ten Commandments, weighing 115-pounds and approximately 1,500 years old, is displayed at Sotheby's, in New York, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, where it is to be offered for auction in a single lot sale, Dec, 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby's Judaica Specialist, Books & Manuscripts, discusses the oldest complete tablet of the Ten Commandments, weighing 115-pounds and approximately 1,500 years old, that is displayed at Sotheby's, in New York, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, where it is to be offered for auction in a single lot sale, Dec, 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)