An Aurora man who died recently after being hit by a car while crossing Farnsworth Avenue is being remembered for his “epic love of family.”
“My dad had taken my half-sisters as his own children without the slightest hint of reservation or bias,” George Edwards’ son, Timmothy, said while remembering his father. “Family was everything to my dad, a nearly compulsive obsession honestly, and that which kept him tied to Aurora. If dad counted you as such, there was nothing he would not go out of his way to do for you.”
George Edwards also loved pizza, his son said. He “preferred Ach-N-Lous over everybody else in town,” and the assisted-living apartments he recently moved into in the 1500 block of Farnsworth Avenue are within a short walking distance of the neighborhood pizza pub.
Edwards was on his way to Ach-N-Lous about 6:15 p.m. March 11, walking westbound across Farnsworth Avenue at its intersection with Marshall Boulevard, when he was hit by a pickup truck, his son said.
A 75-year-old Aurora resident, Guadalupe Luna, was driving a 1996 Chevrolet pickup truck southbound in the curbside lane of Farnsworth when it struck Edwards, according to a preliminary investigation by Aurora police.
Fire department paramedics rushed Edwards to Presence Mercy Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:28 p.m. He was 67.
Luna, who lives in the 200 block of Beach Street in Aurora, was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Luna could not be reached for this story, and an Aurora police spokesman said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Edwards came from a big family, which likely contributed to his outgoing personality, his son said.
“He had a wicked smile that could connect with even the surliest of people,” Timmothy Edwards said.
A younger brother of George Edwards died almost the same way he did. Joseph Edwards was hit by a car in 1999 while riding a bicycle in Aurora.
Joseph Edwards, a 50-year-old man who lived in the 1000 block of Indiana Street, was riding a bicycle about 2 a.m. near the intersection of Sullivan Road and Highland Avenue when he collided with a 1995 Ford Escort. He was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later.
The symmetry of the two tragic deaths “definitely came up” at George Edwards’ funeral, Timmothy Edwards said.
Edwards had a stroke two years ago that affected his vision, and he was getting regular therapy in order to strengthen one of his hands, his son said.
Edwards grew up in Aurora, on a stretch of Exposition Avenue known as the “Cabbage Patch.” He graduated from West Aurora High School. He enjoyed fishing and floating on the Fox River, going for bicycle rides and traveling around the country, to states including Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Nebraska and Arizona, his son said.
But his first love was Aurora, his son said.
“He always loved this town,” Timmothy Edwards said. “He was always drawn to it.”
He described his father as “incredibly strong.”
“He displayed his emotions in very refined ways,” he said. “He wasn’t prone to outbursts or breaking down.”
Edwards was a driving force in the family business of carpentry, building and remodeling. In Edwards’ world, there were no remedial or unnecessary jobs, his son said. Every job worth doing was worth doing well.
“No matter what job dad was doing, it was a really grand job to have because he was doing it,” Timmothy Edwards said. “He had an insane work ethic.”
