Owen and Joe Biden

Got to meet my lifestyle doppleganger at the Democratic State Convention in June. It turns out, we’d e-mailed each other about Mid-Cities Democrats’ fundraising programs in the years past. She’s a young mom and just as politically active. She also has two kiddos and we had the same approach to giving birth and now raising our children.

Since the convention, we’ve talked about family and politics. In our last conversation, she mentioned how her eldest got to meet then-Senator Barack Obama, while she was pregnant with her youngest and how Obama said, “Hey, Buddy” to her son. 

When I wrote a couple months back about how Owen asked if he could meet President Obama, Jeremy said my post was incorrect, that he had met Obama. But really he hadn’t. He got to meet Joe Biden. My new friend’s story about Obama and her son made me pull out Jeremy’s old photos of our family at the 2005 Lee Park rally featuring Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid. 

It started late and Owen was just a year old. We stayed through all the local elected officials’ and then the headliners’ speeches. It was Owen’s first rally and I was determined to get a photo with the Senators, but Obama specifically. At the close of the evening, Senator Obama got a crush of fans. He wouldn’t take photos with anyone, but called Owen “adorable”. It was so crowded I am sure Owen didn’t understand who the center of attention was. 

As we walked to the other side of Arlington Hall, we saw the crowd around Senator Biden. I spoke to a handler who was saying “no more pictures” and told her it was Owen’s first political rally. She brought Senator Biden to us and we got this photo. 

It’s a nice memory revisited, all thanks to my new friend. And that’s the best thing about my community organizing - the great people I meet.