Fort Worth city council members Tuesday night approved a proposed memorial designation in honor of an innocent couple killed in a street racing incident.
The memorial is for Ben and Meg Arbour, both 39, who were killed in November 2020. According to Fort Worth police, the couple was coming home when they pulled into the path of a street race on West Risinger. The Arbours left behind four children.
The memorial was proposed by District 6 councilman Jared Williams. At the Fort Worth city council meeting Tuesday night, both Ben and Meg Arbour’s parents commented on the memorial.
“We miss Meg and Ben greatly, but we also have the faith that everything is OK,” Meg’s father Andy Anderson said.
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Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker knew Ben Arbour and said the city council has had discussions on the issue of street racing.
“There’s videos that go viral online. Our police officers deal with it. There are real consequences to those actions,” Mayor Parker said. “I’m very proud of what Jared [Williams] has done tonight to bring awareness. Risinger is a very dangerous corridor, but you have young people who are not thinking about the results of their actions. Because of what happened, you took two parents from their children.”
In the two-and-a-half years since the Arbours’ deaths, Lead Pastor Dale Braswell with Wedgwood Baptist Church said their legacies live on at the church. The Arbours had been involved with the church for about three years, said Pastor Braswell said.
“This wasn’t your average couple. Great family, beautiful kids,” Braswell said Tuesday. “They were involved with mentoring a lot of our younger families. In this day and age, we have a lot of couples that have moved away from home. Ben and Meg acted as an older brother and sister to them, mentoring them.”
Ben Arbour was a candidate to become a top volunteer leadership role at the church, Braswell said. In the time following their deaths, he said there was an outpour of support for their family.
“That shows the impact Ben and Meg made in their life. When they’re no longer there, there’s so many people,” he said. “We had folks coming down from Oklahoma, lifelong friends coming up from College Station, tons of people here surrounding that family.”
According to Braswell, the couple’s kids are currently under the care of family members. The church has tried to stay in touch.
“As a family, you grieve the loss of a loved one. I think that’s something you never stop doing. You may be moving forward, but you never move on from them. I would say that’s where we, as a church, are. They’re always going to be on our hearts, they’re always going to be in our memory,” he said. “We want to continue to honor their legacy by continuing to be obedient to God’s calling as a church.”
The memorial is expected to be installed around early May, according to a Fort Worth spokesperson.
