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Tipp City cyclist killed Oct. 22 was family’s backbone

Rebekah Meade, left, the 44-year-old Tipp City woman who died after a car struck the bike she was riding in Harrison Twp., "was the backbone of our family and household and we will be lost without her, " her husband Chris Meade said Monday, Oct. 26. Pictured are Rebekah, Chris, and their sons Jacob and Benjamin.

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By Katherine Ullmer, Staff Writer Updated 1:15 AM Tuesday, October 27, 2009

TIPP CITY — Rebekah Meade, the 44-year-old Tipp City woman who died after a car struck the bike she was riding in Harrison Twp., “was the backbone of our family and household and we will be lost without her,” her husband Chris Meade said Monday, Oct. 26.

“Rebekah rode her Bianci bicycle (a high-performance bike) about 40 to 50 miles a day, just about every day,” he said. “She also walked and ran with her white miniature schnauzer about five miles a day, and some days she would take her canoe out for two to three hours.”

The car that hit her Thursday, Oct. 22was driven by an 82-year-old Harrison Twp. woman turning left off Philadelphia Drive onto Bon Aire Avenue in Harrison Twp., said Capt. Jeff Papanek of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Papanek said either the driver or cyclist failed to yield the right of way, but it remains under investigation, and no charges have been filed.

While his wife was not wearing a helmet when she was hit, “with the location of injury to the head and the way she hit, it would not have mattered,” Meade said. “Even if she had been wearing a full-faced motorcycle helmet it most likely would not have mattered.”

Meade said he believes in wearing helmets and does when riding motor cross and street motorcycles. “Any time we are on a motorcycle, the helmet goes on before the bike moves. I also believe in helmets for bicycles, but in this case, as hard as she hit it would not have mattered.”

Meade said his wife of 25 years was, in many ways, a loner.

“She rode by herself for years,” he said. “Becky was a very experienced cyclist. She made rides to Cincinnati, to Springfield, to Greenville. She just goes everywhere.”

He and his wife, who grew up in Vandalia, have two boys, 18 and 20, both at home, he said.

He is a full-service commercial door and hardware contractor, who owns his own business, Chris Meade Specialties, Inc., in Tipp City.

“I’ve always worked and worked and ran and ran,” he said. “I worked, worked, worked and she took care of the household. She did everything — flowers, the yard, the books, decorating, shopping, taking care of the animals, the laundry, cooking, the whole household. I worked 10 to 12 hours a day five to six days a week. I made a very good living for the family and she did her part by doing everything else.”

As he thinks about the message he will give during a memorial he called a celebration of his wife’s life, which has been set for Oct. 31 at the Vandalia United Methodist Church, 200 S. Dixie Drive in Vandalia, he said he realizes what he has lost.

“That’s a hard thing to lose. A good woman is a man’s backbone. My wife was my backbone. I gave her everything she needed, except time.”

“Life and riches and wealth is you and your loved ones and your family and friends. Take care of your family,” he said. “Take time for your loved ones. Take time. Take a walk, smell the roses. I always stated, I will, I will. I did some things with her, but we never had time for all she wanted to do. She was one hell of a wife, mother, woman. A woman makes a home.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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