Addressing the families of fallen soldiers in Arlington, VA today, Vice President Joe Biden confided that he had grappled with thoughts of suicide following the deaths of his wife and baby daughter in a 1972 car crash.

“For the first time in my life,” Biden shared, “I understood how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide. Not because they were deranged, not because they were nuts. Because they’d been to the top of the mountain and they just knew in their heart they’d never get there again.”

“It can and will get better,” he assured his audience. “There will come a day — I promise you, and you parents as well — when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen.”