EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Memories of Aleah Beckerle will be engraved in stone at a plaza in Northeast Evansville this summer.
That’s the hope of Tim Turpin at the Greater Evansville Baseball Hall Of Fame, who plans to create a heart-shaped plaza with memorial bricks purchased by people in the community.
Proceeds from the project were originally meant to pay for funeral expenses for Beckerle, whose body was found in a vacant Evansville house March 29 after she was reported missing in July. Because those expenses have been mostly covered by a GoFundMe campaign and the funeral home, proceeds will instead go to landscaping touches, such as benches around the plaza.
Ideally, the plaza will be a respectful memorial for anyone who knew Beckerle or followed her story, Turpin said. Every brick will have “IMO Aleah” engraved at the top.
“It’s kind of a place where anybody who’s ever lost a child can come out and spend some time there,” he said. “It’s kind of peaceful.”
Turpin, who owns Diamond Yard Bricks, is donating the bricks and engraving. Kevin Keach of 101 Landscaping is donating labor and said he’d start drawing up sketches of the plaza this week. The plaza will be dedicated July 1.
They’re planning to add personal touches to remind people of Beckerle, Turpin said. After he found out her nickname was “Lady,” he decided to look for a ladybug sculpture to place near the memorial.
The centerpiece will be a black granite square with Beckerle’s face engraved on it.
Family members met Turpin at the site of the future brick memorial to hear about the project. Laura Jackson, who was Beckerle’s great-aunt and has been acting as the family’s spokeswoman, said they’re “completely on board.”
As a memorial, the plaza was preceded by tributes of balloons, candles and flowers laid before Beckerle’s home, as well as the house where she was found, only a few miles away.
Linda Lue Brown did not know the Beckerle family before Aleah was reported missing, but is one of many volunteers who became heavily involved in the search - to the point that the family asked her to help oversee the plaza project on their behalf, Jackson said.
“I feel that this Aleah memorial will be so healing to our community,” Brown said.
Brown praised Turpin for his commitment to the project and said she’s been grateful to the community for donating time and resources to the search. Volunteers formed search parties in the summer and fall to comb the Evansville-Henderson area for any sign of the disabled teen.
“There’s just so many good people that got involved and that are still paying respects to Aleah by purchasing one of the bricks that will be honoring Aleah and her memory,” Brown said. “I can’t wait until it is completed. It is going to be exactly what Aleah deserves.”
Bricks can be purchased in two sizes, for $20 or $50. Turpin estimated about $1,000 in bricks had been sold within the first week.
That’s not the only way people are paying their respects.
A GoFundMe to pay for Beckerle’s funeral was created March 31. It reached its $1,750 goal within 12 days.
Organizer Charity Strange said she didn’t know the Beckerle family but wanted to help. Jackson originally warned donors away from the campaign on the “Bring Aleah Home” Facebook page, but later talked to Strange and said she was convinced the fundraiser was legitimate.
Strange tries to live up to her first name, she said. Knowing that funerals can be expensive, she created the GoFundMe to cover whatever costs possible.
“A lot of people were really grateful to have something organized so they could help the family,” she said.
The sudden expense of a funeral after a loved one unexpectedly dies can be overwhelming for a grieving family, which Strange said she knows from seeing it happen to a friend.
“(Money’s) the last thing someone wants to worry about at a time like this,” she said.
The money raised by the GoFundMe goes directly to Browning Funeral Home, which handled Beckerle’s funeral and visitation earlier this week. Strange said the fundraiser would cover most of the cost of documentation, a death certificate and obituaries.
Brian Jewell, of Browning Funeral Home, confirmed the funeral home waived its fees for the visitation and funeral service.
“Since Aleah has been found, it seems that the community has so many different emotions,” Brown said. “It will take our community some time to be able to come to terms with what has happened to Aleah.”
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Source: Evansville Courier and Press, https://bit.ly/2oDY2Jz
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Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, https://www.courierpress.com
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