 In 1972, his wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident. He had been elected to the Senate and took the oath of office in his surviving son's hospital room to remain by their bedsides. In 1987, his first campaign for president came to an end and so nearly did his life, when a few months later, he suffered a brain aneurysm. It was so severe that his doctor told him his chance of survival was less than half.