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Life is too damn short!
I first met Beth in the fall of 1996, while I was working for WCJB TV20. I was the Marion County news photographer and Beth
came back home to Gainesville for a job as a reporter. She came from Macon or Savannah or some place in Georgia, it's not
important, what is important was that she came home to Gainesville.
First, I have to tell you a little about TV 20 so you will understand our relationship. TV 20, even though it is top dog
in TV news in this area, is a training ground for TV types. The University of Florida has a top notch journalism program
and pumps out the grads, and TV 20 takes a lot of them in for their first real job. There has been a lot of real talent pass
through TV 20, and very rarely do they stay very long. There were reporters, right out of college who would get on TV 20 just
long enough to get together a good audition tape and then jump to something bigger and better. We had them come and go in
as little as a few weeks. Finally, 20 got smart and starting tying these network wannabees down to 2 year contracts which
made the station somewhat stable. Before the contracts, along comes Beth, from Macon or Savannah, it doesn't matter, she
got here. Now I was quite the older TV 20 employee at the time and had the intentions of staying forever since I was firmly
rooted here. Beth had the same intentions, meeting and marrying a fellow Florida grad and wanting to make Gainesville home.
WE WERE THE EXCEPTIONS, and that is why we got along so well together. We were also older, Beth older than most of the reporters,
I older than Beth. We both had families, we were both mature and talented individuals. Well, at least she was.......talented
that is.
So it was, the beginning of me knowing Beth.
I really didn't get to interact that much in the first two years because she was in Gainesville and I worked out of Ocala.
I do remember in December of 1996 having just been named as one of 3 photographers to make the trip to New Orleans for the
Sugar Bowl. I also remember how all but 2 of the photographers in Gainesville hated me because I was going. I remember the
Christmas party that year, my first, and how I was not going to go because of the animosity, but how I felt obligated since
I got the Sugar Bowl nod. I needed a security blanket and I knew Beth would be it. I decided to go by the station first because
Beth would be there. I knew she would be there because she just anchored the Sunday 6 o'clock news, so yes, I went out of
my way to go by and tag along to the party with her. She made me feel comfortable, and wanted, and I surprisingly had a good
time.
In 1998 I was promoted to chief photographer and had to now work in Gainesville everyday. It was here I got to now her
very well.
I remember driving with Beth all the way up to Live Oak, to the Florida Sheriffs Boy's Ranch to do this story. I do not remember
what the story was about, but I do remember us driving all the way up to Suwanee county. Someone took this picture of Beth
doing the interview and me with my stupid photographer stance shooting it all. The picture was sent to Beth and she gave it
to me. I do not know why she gave it to me but I put it on the wall of my cubicle where it was with several others taken
on stories. This was the only one of me and Beth. It stayed on my wall until that fateful day when I was no longer needed
at TV 20 and I took it down, threw it in a box with all my other things and faded to black. I didn't think much about it
until after I found out that Beth was in grave condition, then I started to hunt and dig, and hunt and dig some more until
finally, I found it. A few days later, Beth left for that network in the sky so she can now work with Peter Jennings and Jessica
Savich among others. I will now always cherish a picture that I really never paid that much attention to. I now realize just
how short life is and can be. As I write this, I have tears in my eyes knowing what a special wonderful person Beth was.
How she cared for everyone and everything and never, ever, complained about anything. I complained about everything, and
she listened. I thought something is seriously wrong with this girl. Now I realize, Beth had nothing to complain about!
She was too busy listening to me complain to have any time to do any of her own. That's the way Beth was.
I left TV 20 on November 15, 2001 and never had a chance to say goodbye to Beth. In fact, I think I slipped out and never
said goodbye to anyone. Except for Beth, I really don't think anyone else cared anyway.
In the summer of 2004 I was working at WOW 104 in Crystal River. It was saturday night during the all request open house
party that the phone rang and it was Beth! They were having some kind of party at her house and another friend who had left
TV 20 was there, Alicia Bohlke. We were on the phone for over an hour re living TV 20 days and just catching up on things
and that was the last I spoke with Beth.
I do remember this very well. Beth did the healthbeat for quite a while and we did a story about the opening of the brain
insitute at UF Shands hospital. How ironic is it, that a brain tumor took her away? We made the otherwise somewhat boring
story digestable, as we always did. I would give anything, to be back at the brain institute doing that story with her again,
then we could go and do lunch.
You will be missed Beth Youngren! You always did "make good news happen".
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