On the fourth and last day of his trip, he’d admit it: “You know we’re going to get married.” Walking back from their first date later that night, Biden couldn’t shake the thought that Neilia was the one. Nobody ever felt smaller around Neilia,” he wrote. “That was her special touch, the way she made everyone feel okay about themselves. And most of all, he learned that she was sincere and always said the right thing, even during his embarrassing moments. He learned that she hoped to teach junior high school in Syracuse in September. That day, he learned Neilia was from Skaneateles, New York, and she was in her last year at Syracuse University. She was so easy to talk to,” Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep. “Basically I fell ass over tin cup in love-at first sight. “I’m Neilia Hunter.” She looked up at him with her green eyes and smiled, her face illuminated by the afternoon sun.

He walked over and sat at the edge of the woman’s lounge chair. Ultimately, it didn’t matter what side the coin landed on. Fred Sears, the impartial friend of the group, proposed they flip a coin. He wanted to talk to the woman by the pool. The out-of-place college student had snuck in with two friends that spring day in 1964, the men wrapping themselves in the hotel’s beach towels and pretending to be guests. He wasn’t supposed to be there, at the British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. S he made his way to the deck of the swimming pool, Joe Biden noticed the blonde woman sitting in a chaise lounge chair. Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.

Joe biden and first wife and children