Jill Biden: I stay committed always to the things I start

Jill Biden. "When I set my mind to something, I find a way to get it done." These words by US First Lady Jill Biden in one of her husband's campaign videos sums up the kind of person she is. And people who have worked closely with her, echo this sentiment. But even those who have not worked closely with her know that that is not an idle statement. She did, after all, find a way to keep a full-time job when her husband Joe Biden became vice president, and now president. Jill is a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College. She is the only First Lady in US history to have a doctorate degree. As an advocate of education, Jill has often said that being a teacher is not just what she does, it's who she is. She is the kind of person who does not start something unless she can give it her all. Her husband experienced this first hand when he asked her to marry him. He was a senator at the time. He asked her five times before she finally said yes. Why did she take so long to say yes? "It wasn't just my heart on the line - I loved the boys so much I had to be sure that it had to be forever," she said. True to her words, they have been married for 45 years. When she said yes, she was getting into a family that had known profound grief and sorrow. Biden's first wife and one-year-old daughter had died in a road accident. "You know, motherhood came to me in a way I never expected. I fell in love with a man and two little boys standing in the wreckage of unthinkable loss - mourning a wife and mother, a daughter and sister. I never imagined, at the age of 26, I would be asking myself, 'How do you make a broken family whole?'" she said in another video by the DNC. She has however done a splendid job. She has weathered more storms with the family, holding steady through the perilous winds of life in the limelight. President Biden has described her as "so damn tough and loyal", the strongest person he knows, and the rock of his family. It hasn't all been so serious and grim, Jill is known for her love of playing pranks on family and other people. She once played a prank on the media, managing to fool even her staff, when she disguised herself as a flight attendant. She wore a short, black wig and wore the name tag, 'Jasmine', serving ice cream bars to the people on the flight from Washington to California. It wasn't until she returned without the wig on and said, 'April Fools!' that everyone realised what had happened. Her positive attitude has undoubtedly helped in difficult times, and it is something that she treasures and never lets touch one of her biggest loves: running. "I have a rule that I never think of anything negative when I'm running," she said in one of Biden's campaign videos. Jill, 71, has had several major achievements, including becoming a New York Times best-selling author. She has written two children's books and in 2019, she published a memoir; Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself. She is a supporter of military families, being a military mother herself, and has worked to end cancer. In 2010, she told Runner's Magazine that some of her friends got cancer in the early 1990s, including one who tragically died. Because of that fighting cancer has been a particularly close cause for her. Jill jets into the country today till Sunday, a visit reaffirming America's commitment to working with Kenya for a better future. She is visiting Kenya as a follow-up of the US-Africa Leaders' Summit held in December last year where she hosted a two-day programme for Africa's First Ladies. Her trip follows an invite by Kenya's First Lady Rachel Ruto during the Washington meeting. While in Kenya, she will get a chance to learn about the table banking programme; a transformational economic empowerment model championed by Rachel. The table banking model by Joyful Women Organisation is active in 39 out of 47 counties and aims to expand to all the 47 counties.

Jill Biden: I stay committed always to the things I start

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