uncle jimmy and aunt val, so he will commute. after the accident, i mean, the bond was steel rods among the three of them. >> reporter: steel bondsthe loss of his wife and by aby >> you said you went around kind of looking for fights and you wrote that you even understand why people consider committing suicide. >> i thought what it would be like to just go to the memorial bridge and just jump off and end it all. but i didn't get in a car and do it, wasn't never even close. what saved me was really my boys. >> reporter: on capitol hill, he found support he didn't expect from senate elders, of both parties. >> these old bulls, all, took him in and helped buffer him from that grief. helped him carve a path towards real meaning and value in that experience. he saw their humanity, before he saw their politics, in many respects. >> reporter: biden's senate was a much-less polarized place and, in a 1974 interview, he recoiled at being pigeonholed by special-interest groups as either liberal or conservative. his political connections were always personal. >> he will talk about a republican opponent, in private, with a great deal of empat