Strongest in the broken places': Joe and Jill Biden say thanks amid cancer diagnosis

Strongest in the broken places': Joe and Jill Biden say thanks amid cancer diagnosis

Joe and Jill Biden said on Monday they were thankful for the "love and support





Joe and Jill Biden said on Monday they were thankful for the "love and support" they've received since the former president's office announced his cancer diagnosis on Sunday.


"Cancer touches us all," the couple said in a post on Joe Biden's social media account. "Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support."


The post included a photo of the couple, along with their cat, Willow.


White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Monday if Trump had spoken to Biden directly following Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis.


"Not to my knowledge, I don't believe they have spoken, but I'm sure the president would be open to doing that," Leavitt said. "I spoke to him last night about the former president's cancer diagnosis and the statement that he put out was the initial reaction he had with me on the phone as well."


Trump wrote on his conservative social media platform on Sunday, "Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden's recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery."


Biden's office on Sunday said he had been diagnosed on Friday with prostate cancer, saying that while it was "a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management."


MORE: Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with 'aggressive' prostate cancer

"The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians," the statement said on Sunday.


Biden's cancer diagnosis comes after a small nodule was found in the former president's prostate after "a routine physical exam" on Tuesday. The discovery of the nodule "necessitated further evaluation," his spokesperson said at the time.



President Joe Biden kisses his wife First Lady Jill Biden after he gave the keynote address on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at t...Show more

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The sentiment about being stronger in the "broken places" is derived from a well-worn line in "A Farewell to Arms," a novel by Ernest Hemingway, which says, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." It's a citation that Biden has often applied in difficult and important moments, both in his life and for the general public.


Biden used the phrase in 2016, as he opened his speech at the Democratic National Convention. He then quoted the line in March 2021, as the country marked the first anniversary of the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he repeated it in September 2021, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, using Hemingway's words in his tribute to the victims.


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