When their son Anderson Beck was born, ecstatic father Aaron made the first skin-to-skin contact with the newborn after his wife Laura’s traumatic cesarean surgery. Aaron had been involved throughout the pregnancy, tracking the baby’s growth “from blueberry to guava,” Laura tells PEOPLE, and when Anderson was delivered, “it was just a magical feeling—so right and beautiful.”
As the infant grew, father and son hung out on their tree swing outside Richmond, Va., kept flowers in the garden, and cheered on Aaron’s favorite professional hockey club. “It was the life both of us had always wanted,” Laura adds. “We did ‘cheers’ every single day to celebrate.”
Laura no longer has much to celebrate. Instead, she mourns the loss of her 18-month-old son and only child to a hot automobile death on June 28, 2022, when her husband unintentionally left him in the car and went into the office. Aaron, 37, committed suicide in an almost instantaneous reaction to pain.
“I don’t even know if the shock has worn off,” she says. “It marked the beginning of the end of my life.” But I couldn’t just accept what happened to them.”
Laura discovered how prevalent such catastrophes are when her sons, as she calls them, died. “I used to be that naïve and judgmental person, questioning how anyone could forget their child in a car,” says the mother. “It took losing my son and husband to understand that it can happen even to the most loving and attentive parents.”
And it does. Anderson was among 36 people killed in overheated cars in the United States in 2022.
Nearly 40 youngsters die each year in heated automobiles. More than half have been reported to have been unintentionally left in a car, nearly all of them under the age of three.
According to the national group Kids and Car Safety, both positive intentions and common faults contribute to the trend. In the mid-1990s, safety experts began urging youngsters to travel in rear-facing car seats. They are safer in a collision, but they can easily go missing.
According to neurologist David Diamond, who has researched hot car deaths for two decades, a disruption in family routine, a distracting or stressful encounter prior to or during a trip, and the fallibility of human memory can all contribute to this sort of tragedy.
A series of apparently little events threw the Beck household off balance that fateful morning in 2022. Anderson, who was recovering from a cold, woke up early. The couple had considered keeping him home from daycare but decided that the fever-free infant could still attend. Their new dog caused mayhem, as puppies do, and Laura’s changing work schedule meant the pair had yet to develop a steady drop-off routine.
Laura decided to check up on her kid at school and was shocked to hear the words, “Anderson isn’t here.” With a sinking stomach, she called her husband at work and shouted into the phone, “Where the F— is Anderson?” “He’s not in daycare!” Aaron responded unexpectedly but calmly. “What do you mean?” he inquired. He knew the infant was at daycare. Except that Anderson wasn’t.
The next time she heard from Aaron, he confessed to killing their son. He had not intended to do so. He was sorry. He said he loved her. He subsequently ended his own life.
“Aaron’s love for Anderson was so profound, he never would have forgiven himself,” Laura adds. “I picture him opening the car door and seeing that—imagine how you’d feel. It’s pure misery, humiliation, remorse, and despair. That was all he knew to do at that time.”
Laura has discovered her path forward as an advocate. “It’s what keeps me going,” she explains.
Shortly after that June day, she connected with Kids and Car Safety and created Anderson’s Alert in 2023 to provide parents with educational and safety information. She also started a podcast, Beck’s Backseat to Change, to raise awareness about how easily these catastrophes happen. She said, “By learning about what we went through that day, we can save other lives.”
“I want people to know how big Aaron and Anderson’s lives were,” says Laura, now 39. “They are more than simply a tragedy. I still have days where I wonder, “How am I walking?” How am I doing this? But I think of Aaron every day when I make a decision. I know he would reply, “Just stay calm.” You’ve already been through the worst. I hear that.”