Uniformed man seen kneeling at Beau Biden’s grave during inauguration

Jeremy Tanner/Nexstar Media Wire

Updated: Jan 21, 2021 / 08:43 AM CST

WILMINGTON, DE – SEPTEMBER 13: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden arrives at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church for Sunday service on September 13, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden’s oldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015; and Biden’s first wife Neilia Biden and their daughter Naomi, who died in an automobile accident in 1972, are all buried in the church’s cemetery. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

GREENVILLE, Del. (Nexstar) — An unidentified, lone man was seen kneeling before the grave of President Joe Biden’s late son, Beau, during Biden’s inauguration address Wednesday.

Patricia Talorico, with the Delaware News Journal, took the now-viral photo of the uniformed man, his head bowed and hands clasped, sitting before Beau Biden’s grave at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Cemetery in Greenville, Delaware.

Poignant moment: While Joe Biden gave his inauguration speech, a lone man in a uniform knelt at the Delaware grave of his son Beau. pic.twitter.com/QkCuJRHzTz
— Patricia Talorico (@PattyTalorico) January 20, 2021

“I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt this poignant, solemn moment,” Talorico said. “I took some photos from a distance, and pulled my car over to a nearby roadway.”

Talorico said she listened to the rest of Biden’s speech and circled back to see if the uniformed man was there, and he was, still kneeling with his head lowered.

“The journalist in me wanted to go back and find out his identity and ask why he was there,” Talorico said. “The person who once received a kind gesture from Beau when I needed it most knew it was a time to be respectful, and I drove away. Some things in life you just let be.”

Beau Biden died on May 30, 2015 at the age of 46, less than two years after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

While speaking in Delaware on Tuesday, then President-elect Biden told reporters, tears streaming down his face, “I only have one regret, that he’s not here. Because we should be introducing him as president.”