Family pay tribute to mother who died after being struck by car

At 4.30am on Tuesday Beth crept out of bed and went out for an early run as she did every morning. Sadly, this time Beth didn’t make it home.

At 4.30am on Tuesday Beth Eden crept out of bed, pulled on her jogging shoes and went out into the early dawn.

Jogging was a passion and something she did every morning.

Sadly this time, Beth, 60, did not make it home.

Beth Eden died after being hit by a car while jogging in Beenleigh on Tuesday.

Just 10 minutes into her run, the mother of three was killed when she was hit by a car on a footpath on Milne St, 300m from her home in Mt Warren Park.

For Beth’s children Laura, 35, Tim, 33, Rebekah, 28, her husband Jim, 62, their wider family and community — the earth has fallen down around them.

A 25-year-old driver ran off the road in Milne St, onto a footpath and through this fence.

“I have no idea how we’re going to do it to be honest,” Jim said.

“We’re struggling more than we should be because she was the glue,” eldest Laura said.

“She was the sun and we were rocks that would just float around mum.

“We just feel like we’ve lost the sun. We’ve lost the centre of our universe.”

Beth and Jim Eden were known for holding hands together wherever they went.

The family cannot fathom a world where their grandchildren do not get to know their “gammy”, or the future memories they will never get to make together.

The trip to Melbourne Rebekah was meant to take with her mum and the dumpling restaurant they were meant to return to.

The endless afternoon walks Tim would take with his mother and the half marathon she was registered to run at the Gold Coast next July.

Beth Eden, third from right, with her family at a Parkrun event.

But some comfort to the family has been the endless happy memories they have of Beth.

Memories of their “funny as hell” mother who was never one to sit on the sideline.

Who once broke a bed when trying to help Laura learn how to “flop” better for high jump.

Who recently made youngest Rebekah hug her for three full minutes because she’d read in a health article online that it was good for stress.

Beh’s children said she had a close relationship with all three of them.

“I still feel her hugging me,” Rebekah said.

“Even though at the time I think I thought it was the weirdest thing ever.”

They remember her as the “kind of person that brought people together without meaning to”, either at Weight Watchers or at Parkrun every Saturday.

Just five weeks ago, Beth and Jim returned from Italy.

Beth and her husband Jim had just returned from the destination of her dreams, Italy.

The three children had saved enough money to send their parents there because it was on Beth’s “bucket list” and a place she had always wanted to visit.

They have also found some peace in the knowledge that she knew how much they loved her and they knew how proud she was of them.

Just a few weeks ago Tim was walking with his mother and she shared with him how full she felt her life was.

Beth in Tasmania.

“I went for a walk with her a couple of weeks ago and she was telling me how happy she was,” Tim said.

“She finally was in that place where she was just happy.”