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Separate pain, but common purpose, for mom, officer
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Luly Beckles-Palomares talks to children and monitors her 4-year-old son, Johan, at the second annual Bike Safety Day at the Gateway YWCA.
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Published: May 18, 2008
When she finally paused for a minute's rest yesterday after weeks of work organizing a community bicycle-safety day, Luly Beckles-Palomares had an easy explanation for why she went to the lengths she did to make the day a success.
"My son Jacob asked if Josh was going to be able to come down from heaven to celebrate his birthday," Beckles said. "Of course, he cannot.
"But I promised Jacob we would do something to remember Josh."
Josh is Joshua Franklin Palomares-Beckles, her oldest son. He died late in the evening on May 20, 2006, after being hit by a drunken driver while he was riding his bicycle. He was 7.
In the weeks after his death, Beckles was angry and upset -- just like you'd expect. Angry at Michael Logan, the man who killed her son. Upset that her son was taken from her at such a young age. No parent wants to outlive a child.
"I decided that I could be bitter and sad -- well, I'm sad a lot -- or I could do something positive so that something good could come from Joshua's death," Beckles said. "And that's what we did."
Second tragedy
She started her project last year, holding the first rodeo/bike-safety day in the parking lot at the Children's Museum. As she is quick to point out, Beckles had a lot of help with that first one.
One man in particular, Officer George Reavis of the Winston-Salem Police Department, went beyond what he might have been expected to do.
Reavis had worked as a bicycle-patrol officer and had plenty of ideas on how to turn Beckles' idea to honor her son into a day to reach the whole community. He helped raise money to pay for more than 250 bicycle helmets that were given to local children.
"Even though he didn't know my son, he is the one who helped me develop it into a bike-safety day," Beckles said.
Coming as it does at the end of National Bicycle Week, the local Bike Safety Day honoring Joshua seemed destined to grow each year.
But just as the organizers were preparing to start planning for this year's Bike Safety Day kicked in, Reavis suffered a terrible head injury in an accident at home.
He was in the hospital at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center from Jan. 27 through March 12, and doctors couldn't promise that he would survive.
Yet he did. He woke from a coma to vigorously attack his rehabilitation. So this year's safety day was expanded to honor Reavis.
He still suffers memory losses, but is making remarkable progress and made certain he made it out yesterday to the Gateway YWCA for the event, during which about 275 helmets were given out.
"This is pretty cool," he said as he surveyed the crowd in the company of friends wearing black T-shirts with his name printed on them.
"I feel good.
"It'll work if we can get kids to wear their helmets and keep them out of what I've been going through."
Successful day
Back in Ricky Lineberry's childhood days in the 1970s, no one stopped to consider the dangers of not wearing a bike helmet. Now he wouldn't dream of letting his 5-year-old daughter, Sara, outside without one.
"Not on her tricycle, not on a scooter. That helmet's going to be on," Lineberry said shortly after Sara got fitted with a brand-new helmet. "There are just too many head injuries and too much at risk not to wear one."
Even though Joshua Palomares-Beckles was wearing his helmet the night he was killed -- nothing could have shielded a 7-year-old boy from a Chevy Suburban being driven by a drunk driving on the wrong side of the street -- his mother doesn't want another mother to endure what she has.
"I want people to know about Josh and how beautiful he was," Beckles said.
"I want people to know also that could have been their child, and I want to try to prevent that from happening to another family."
There are still constant reminders and loose ends that Beckles has to deal with -- a pending civil lawsuit, birthdays and photos -- but she's doing something positive to stave off the corrosive effects of deep-rooted bitterness and anger.
That, along with Reavis' amazing recovery and fighting spirit, was the day's real success stories.
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.
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