WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WNCN) – Riding through the country with his daughter Veronica on the back of his motorcycle is one of Jim Baker’s fondest memories.
“I could not start my motorcycle up without my daughter going, ‘Dad, where are we going?,” Baker explained. “She would tell me all about the smells and tap me on my shoulder and say, ‘dad did you smell that?’ and it would be a freshly plowed field or honeysuckle.”
Veronica Baker was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Bojangles on Jones Sausage Road in Raleigh last month. She was a recent graduate of Garner Magnet High School and would have turned 18-years-old on Friday. To honor his late daughter’s life, Baker and more than 100 people took part in a memorial ride on Saturday morning.
“It’s a sad situation,” said Aaron Hickman, Vice President the Dragon Slayers Motorcycle Club of Wake County, which hosted the memorial ride. “But what Mr. Baker said, nobody wants to lose their daughter you know, that’s horrible. But it’s nice to do this memorial for her; it’s what her dad wanted.”
The crowd rode from the clubhouse in Wendell to Raleigh and back. They donated money to Masonic Children’s Home in Oxford in exchange for lunch. Baker said his daughter took a special liking to the organization, and used to collect Beanie Babies for the children who live there.
Laura Baker knows her daughter is no longer physically here, but says she felt her presence on Saturday. She explained, “I feel her with me, since I got here this morning… I know the sun came out because Veronica is with us.”
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Source: CBS 17