The Beck Family: Great Grandpa Beck

Our family said goodbye to Great Grandpa Beck last week. Josh’s grandfather turned 80 years old on April 11th. We were able to go down to his grandma and grandpa’s house to celebrate his birthday with the rest of Josh’s family. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Great Grandpa Beck seemed happy and healthy. All was fine until Thursday morning when Josh got a phone call from his mom saying that they were taking his grandpa to the local hospital with chest pains. They diagnosed him with a heart attack and decided it would be best to airlift him to a hospital that specializes in cardiac cases. When he got to the heart hospital, they were able to do a heart cath and placed stent in his heart. All seemed to be going well until Josh got a phone call a little while later saying that his grandpa had taken a turn for the worse and his kidneys were shutting down. They had done more testing and found that his aortic valve was leaking. They decided to do surgery to try to repair the leaking valve, but it was very risky. Josh’s grandpa survived the surgery, but ended up passing away Thursday night. It was so sudden and surprised everyone.

Great Grandpa Beck was loved by everyone. He was such a good example to all who met him. Josh spoke at his funeral and told a story about how he was helping out on the farm when he was about 10 or 11 years old and his grandpa offered to let him drive the truck. Josh happily hopped into the driver’s seat and took off down the road under the guidance of his grandpa. They started approaching another farm truck that was parked on the side of the road. Josh’s grandpa told him to pull over to the side of the road a little more because he was too close to the truck, so Josh turned the wheel a little more. Grandpa said I think you need to turn a little more. Josh turned a little more and “SMASH”. Grandpa told Josh to stop the truck, so he stopped and Grandpa went back to check out the damage. Meanwhile, Josh slipped back into the passenger seat, because he knew that he would be in trouble for hitting the other truck. Grandpa came back, opened the passenger door and said “What are you doing over here? Get back in the Driver’s seat”. Evidently Josh had just clipped the mirror a little bit and that everything was fine. Josh’s grandpa taught him how important it was to never give up that day and it was a lesson that has stuck with him. Grandpa Beck will be missed.