A North Texas man is opening up about his brief but memorable encounter with the National Guard member killed in Washington, D.C., last week.

Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died on Thanksgiving, and seeing her face in the news brought back a memory for Jason Hernandez.

“It’s just constantly in my brain. I feel like I was meant to cross paths with her,” said Hernandez, founder of the McKinney nonprofit La Tiendita.

Hernandez met Beckstrom during a trip to Washington, D.C. on Sept. 21. He flew there for a meeting and went sightseeing.

“What was the purpose of me and her meeting? I was there for 24 hours. There was so many National Guard members I could’ve taken a picture of that were there, and for some reason it was of her,” Hernandez said.

Beckstrom was a West Virginia National Guard specialist

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