Vice President Joe Biden joined hundreds of others attending the wake of Martha Dodd Buonanno, sister of Sen. Christopher Dodd. After leaving the funeral home he spent time with the many Buonanno family children.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

 PROVIDENCE –– Surrounded by nearly two dozen young children in suits and dresses, Vice President Joe Biden joined a throng of mourners who came to a Wayland Square funeral home Thursday to pay their respects Martha Dodd Buonanno, a sister of U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd.

Dodd and Biden have been friends for nearly 30 years, and Martha Buonanno, who had become one of her brother’s biggest boosters when Biden and Dodd ran in last year’s presidential primaries, had known Biden’s sister Valerie for years.

In light of that deep friendship, Dodd and his wife, Jackie, said they weren’t surprised when the vice presidentimmediately carved time out of a busy schedule that included trips earlier in the day to Ohio and New York to attend her wake.

The wife of East Side lawyer Bernard V. Buonanno Jr., a mother five children and a grandmother of 17, Martha Buonanno died after a short struggle with cancer on July 6 at the age of 68.

She had been active in so many causes — from the years she had put in mentoring children in Volunteers in Providence Schools to serving on the boards of such organizations as The Wheeler School and the Rhode Island Association for the Blind — no one seemed surprised that the line of people there to express their condolences stretched for more than a block.

“They have a lot of friends and relatives and some of those friends also happen to be politicians,” said Abbie Dodd, one of the daughters of Martha’s oldest brother, Ambassador Thomas Dodd.

The long list of visitors yesterday included Governor Carcieri, members of the General Assembly, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline and Sen. Jack Reed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent word to Senator Dodd that she would attend the funeral, on Friday in St. Joseph Church on Hope Street.

One concern of the day was how the vice president — who came in by motorcade from T.F. Green Airport — would make his way through the crowded funeral parlor without having to stop for every well-wisher waiting nearby.

He approached that situation by going first to a room that was set aside for the children. When he entered the room, he promised the children — 15 of Buonanno’s grandchildren and 2 of Dodd’s children — that he would take them to see the limousine if they would accompany him into the main parlor.

Biden needed no other security as the children escorted him in. The children held him by the hand and smiled as if they were gathered around a dear old uncle. For some, it wasn’t the first time they met the vice president. Asked what Biden told her as they were walking in, one girl said, “He said he’d like to take me home. He told me the same thing last year when I saw him in Iowa.”

When he arrived at the casket, the vice president knelt and said a prayer, before going on to embrace Martha’s husband and her children and other relatives.

Then, as if on cue, the children escorted him out, offering a natural buffer from reporters and other curiosity seekers.

True to his word, the vice president took a group of five children out to the limousine, letting them go inside for a tour. Then he returned for another set of children, again and again. But that wasn’t the end of it. Quietly, he sat down at the stone wall bordering the Monahan Drabble & Sherman Funeral Home, and for the next 25 minutes, took the time to write each child a personal note.

As he was doing so, Governor Carcieri arrived and entered the funeral home through another door.

Among others who came to express their condolences to the Buonanno and Dodd families were people who had known the family either as neighbors, or as members of one of the organizations to which Martha Buonanno had energetically volunteered.

The Rev. Brian J. Shanley, president of Providence College, said he believed “half of Rhode Island” knew the family and noted that Senator Dodd is a PC alumnus.

The Rev. Robert W. Hayman said he came to know the Buonannos and their children and grandchildren since he became pastor of St. Sebastian parish 10 years ago.

“They are parishioners of St. Sebastian’s,” he said. But the funeral Mass, set for 11 a.m., was being held at St. Joseph because “it’s larger.”

“I don’t think our church would be large enough to hold all the relatives.”

rdujardi@projo.com