Greeley – Crystal Becker wasn’t impressed when she met her future husband, Shane Becker, in a Texas nightclub about 14 years ago.
The Army soldier from Greeley was stationed at Fort Hood when he literally bumped into Crystal at a nightclub, and she was annoyed.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute. Just because you’re 6-1, you think you’re going to push me around?”‘
But Shane wasn’t swayed by her attitude. He teasingly asked her to dance to the blaring pop music. Later, she said, he flashed her “such an innocent, gummy smile I said this guy can’t be bad.”
Crystal recalled that first encounter Sunday, following an emotional memorial for her husband, Staff Sgt. Shane Becker, who died April 3 while serving in Iraq.
The smile she remembered from that night was the first of hundreds that would melt Crystal’s heart after they were married in 1994.
“It was my smile,” she said, savoring the memory as tears trickling from her eyes. “That face was for me.”
More than 150 people – including members of the Union Colony Fire/Rescue Authority, the Greeley Police Department, students and families from across the community – came out to remember a hometown hero at a memorial service at Greeley West High School.
Family members struggled to contain their grief.
Firefighter Robert Jorgensen, Shane Becker’s stepfather, wept as he described the memorial as an occasion to share stories about Becker, and “remember the good things he gave us.”
The service, he said, was also to show Becker’s daughters – Cheyenna, who was barely two months old, and Cierra, who was 7, when their father died – who their father was.
“I wish it would get easier, but it just doesn’t seem to,” Jorgensen told the audience, as Cierra ran up to the podium and wrapped her arms around his waist.
A photograph of Becker holding his two daughters was projected onto a screen behind the auditorium stage during the ceremony. Resting in the middle of the stage was a display with Becker’s weapon, boots and military helmet.
Outside, 10 American flags lined the stairs leading to the school entrance, some of them tied with yellow ribbon.
Speakers read letters about Becker, written by fellow soldiers who described him as a leader who protected his fellow soldiers in the field.
Retired U. S. Col. Bill Suhre presented Crystal Becker with a Purple Heart plaque, and Becker’s mother, Deborah Jorgensen, with a miniature Purple Heart.
A neighbor remembered Shane Becker as a kid who came knocking on her back door to ask if her son could come out and play when he was just a 3-year-old, then grew up to be a handsome young athlete at Greeley West.
Cierra Becker shared how painful losing her father has been.
“The soldier came to our door. … They said daddy was killed,” she said. “We cried for hours and hours until our eyes hurt.
“My daddy was a hero to me and my family. I always think about him every day.”
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or at krouse@denverpost.com.
