Gary Beckstrom’s Thanksgiving Day message to the nation carried a world of hurt in 18 poignant words.

“I’m holding her hand right now,” he told the New York Times on Thursday. “She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery.”

He was speaking from the Washington, D.C., hospital room of his daughter, Sarah Beckstrom, who died later that day.

The 20-year-old Summersville native, who enlisted in the National Guard right after her graduation from Webster Springs High School in 2023, was gunned down in the nation’s capital the day before while serving with her military unit.

She had just arrived in Washington, in fact, along with Andrew Wolfe, a staff sergeant from Martinsburg who took the same path as Beckstrom.

He joined up after walking across the stage for this diploma with the

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