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Family's life shattered in a few quick moments
By Jewell Cardwell
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Oct 24, 2008
Victoria Beckman remembers everything about the morning of Monday, Oct. 6.
She remembers driving her three oldest children — Kyle, 7; Ethan, 6; and Lauren Benjamin, 5 — to Turkeyfoot Elementary School, with her youngest, 14-month-old Joseph Allen Beckman, strapped snugly in his car seat.
Uppermost in her mind now was pulling onto Portage Lakes Drive and dropping off her husband, Joseph ''Joe'' Lee Beckman, at his job at Coventry Tree Service after kissing him goodbye.
It would be their last kiss.
''I got there at 8:54 a.m.,'' an emotionally spent Victoria said from her home this week. ''I happened to look at the clock. I don't
know why.
''I always drove him to work. He never had a driver's license and didn't have any interest in driving.''
Victoria Beckman returned home. A short while later — at 9:19 a.m. — she got a call from her husband. ''He asked me to bring him a lug bolt for the big truck tire. He wanted me to drop it off at his brother's house,'' she said.
On her way there she stopped off to get a creme stick at Honeymoon Donut & Coffee Shop on Manchester Road.
Little could she know that sugar-sweet moment was on its way to doing a complete nose dive for Victoria Beckman and her family.
A telephone call did that.
''I got a call from his (Joe's) good friend Casey Stack,'' Victoria said. ''Again I looked at the clock; it was 9:38 . . .
'' 'Joey got hurt real bad. It doesn't look good,' '' she said Stack told her.
''As I drove to the job site I tried calling Casey back but he wouldn't answer my phone call. So, I knew it had to be bad.''
Victoria said she drove into a frenzied situation, with New Franklin police and paramedics already on the scene. ''He was covered by a sheet. And I knew,'' she said, still hard-pressed to form the words.
Joe Beckman was lowering a limb tied to a rope from a tree. Somehow a piece from a different part of the tree pulled off, striking him in the head and causing the fatal injury.
He had been on the job site less than 20 minutes.
Joe Beckman had worked as a laborer for 17 years at the company owned by his brother, David Beckman.
''I don't know what to think, how to feel anymore,'' Victoria said.
So much about her life changed in that instant. Yet so much remains the same. His work boots still sit on the front porch right outside the door.
Not only has she lost her husband, she's lost her footing too.
The couple was in the process of looking for a house, with their eyes on a rent-to-own place in the Coventry-Manchester area.
They had been living in the house Victoria formerly shared with her ex-husband, who was the owner. That house is slated to go up for sheriff's sale today. ''Life got changed around real quick,'' she sighed, saying her husband was not insured.
''He was 33 years, one month and 10 days old.''
In an effort to help Victoria, who formerly worked in medical billing, stay afloat, Turkeyfoot School PTA is hosting a benefit Pancake Breakfast 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday at Coventry Junior High School, 3257 Cormany Road, Coventry Township.
Also, on Nov. 1, another fundraiser — a 6 p.m. reverse raffle — is planned at the Barberton Moose Lodge, 250 31st St., Barberton.
That event — sponsored by Nelson Linger, owner of Linger's Lumberjacks in the Norton-Barberton area — is already drawing crews from at least 20 other tree companies.
''We compete every day for work. But we're all brothers,'' Linger said.
''I would like to think that when I was 33 they would have stepped up to the plate for my wife and family,'' said Linger, who never met Joe Beckman.
Cost for the event is $30 or $45 a couple; that includes food and draft beer.
According to Linger, 40 to 50 baskets have been donated by area businesses and vendors as raffle prizes. For more information, please call Linger's Lumberjacks at 330-825-0161.
In the meantime, please keep Victoria Beckman in your prayers.
Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Victoria Beckman remembers everything about the morning of Monday, Oct. 6.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 08:28 AM, 10/24/2008
Life can be so cruel, sorry for your loss.
akron, OH
Posted 11:25 AM, 10/24/2008
Our family(Williams) will keep yours in our prayers.
Posted 11:47 AM, 10/24/2008
I am so sorry for you and your family; how awful. I wish you well and my prayers are with you too.
