Young man's life cut short by COVID-19
Corey Becker's landlord in Salt Lake City had just taken his wife to the hospital because her COVID-19 symptoms were worsening.
When he returned, he decided to check on Becker, who he knew had been sick at his apartment with the virus.
Becker, 36, had moved from Butler County to Salt Lake City, where a friend of his lived, in May after being laid off permanently from Penn United Technology in Cabot.
“He was home for two or three days when the landlord convinced him to go to the hospital because his breathing was bad,” said his grieving mother, Terry Becker of Jefferson Township. “Thank God he checked on Corey because if he hadn't, he probably would have found him dead.”
Although overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, the staff at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, called Terry and Paul Becker each day to give reports on their son's progress.
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The landlord's daughter, whose phone number Corey had shared with his mother when he got sick, helped Terry and Paul to decipher medical terms through her expertise as an emergency medical technician after doctors updated them on Corey's condition.Becker was placed on a ventilator at the hospital and had surgery to remove a part of his small intestine that was affected by the virus.“He got through that and he seemed to be fine for a while and everything was going OK,” Terry Becker said.Her son even came off the ventilator for about six hours, but aspirated fluid into his lungs, which were already fighting off pneumonia.“The doctor called and said this is the sickest he'd seen him and we need to prepare ourselves,” Terry Becker recalled.The couple had not accepted the hospital's offers to video chat with their son because they were afraid their reaction to seeing him hooked up to tubes and machines would be a detriment to his recovery.When it became apparent that the disease would soon claim their son's life, the Beckers received a phone call from his doctor.“Before he passed, the doctors took a phone in and we told him it was OK,” Terry Becker said.Corey Becker, 36, a happy-go-lucky adventurer and 2003 Knoch High School graduate, died Oct. 29.
Because they could not visit their son in the hospital, the Beckers did not travel to Utah until after their son had died.The love and support they were shown still astounds them, Terry Becker said.Corey's co-workers at the global security company he worked for greeted the couple at the airport Oct. 31 and drove them to the mortuary, where their son's remains waited.Corey's mom said the mortuary staff also showed incredible sensitivity to the couple.“They said, 'You can't touch him because of the COVID,' but she gave us gloves and said, 'I'm not going to be in the room,'” Terry Becker recalled. “They were wonderful.”The landlord's daughter, who had helped the Beckers with the medical terminology during Corey's illness, found them free accommodations and performed countless tasks in an effort to unburden the couple as they dealt with the aftermath of their son's untimely death.“She helped us immensely,” Terry Becker said. “She was an angel in disguise.”The couple went to their son's apartment and packed up his belongings in two hours.They collected his ashes from the mortuary and drove his car home, which took four days.While the drive was one they never wanted to make, the couple took comfort in using the same route Corey took when he moved to Salt Lake City a short time before.“We kept saying, 'Hey buddy, did you see that mountain up there?'” Terry Becker said. “It was an amazing drive, but I couldn't wait to get home.”
Once they returned, more love and support surrounded them.“The neighborhood took up a collection. Mars Area School District, where my husband works, took up a collection,” Terry Becker said. “Old friends came out of the woodwork. The cards and condolences and donations keep coming.”The Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company, where Corey was a member, is holding an online fundraiser on gofundme.com to help pay for the family's expenses in traveling to Utah and bringing their son back to Butler County.Becker said a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Dec. 5 at New Life Christian Church, 139 Knoch Road in Saxonburg, pending the virus cases in the county at that time.She said losing a child is a singular, piercing pain unlike any other. “We do not ever want to wish this on anybody,” Terry Becker said through tears. “I know people who have lost their child and now I know what they are going through.”
Regarding the virus, she is extremely disheartened when she sees people going about their lives without taking precautions.“It's real, people,” she said. “Cover your face. Keep yourself healthy. You don't want this to hit your family. It's very painful.”She said the virus doesn't care who it attaches itself to or what their beliefs are regarding the pandemic.“You never think you'd be the statistic in this virus, and here we are,” she said.For now, she is planning to make teddy bears for her daughter's girls out of their uncle's flannel shirts.Terry Becker will make herself a bear from Corey's collection of hoodies.“That way, I can sit and hug it,” she said.The couple has been in quarantine since returning from Salt Lake City, but will get to see their daughter and granddaughter after their two weeks are up Wednesday.She again implored all residents to wear a mask, social distance and wash their hands to protect themselves, their families and the doctors and nurses finding themselves overwhelmed with patients due to COVID-19.“I can't say enough about the front-line workers during this virus,” she said.The Beckers ordered three party packs of cookies for the nurses who cared for their son in the intensive care unit at Intermountain Medical Center.“They were in tears that we would actually stop and think of them while we were having such heartache,” Terry Becker said.Now she, her husband, daughter and granddaughters will have to find a way to live without their loved one, who played center field for the Knoch Knights baseball team and spent much of his childhood gaming in the basement.“I used to flick the lights, so he would come up and eat dinner,” Terry Becker recalled. “Now, we have his car, his ashes and his memory.”
