Interlude – Remembering Ben

Author’s Note:  In case you missed it, it was mentioned last chapter that we lost an icon.  Ben Murdock has left us.  But he didn’t leave without leaving his mark.  I wanted to take a moment to remember the very first Murdick …. Benjamin Murdock with his life in pictures ….  R.I.P. Ben.  💔💓

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Ben’s life started out hard.  He grew up in an abusive home.  When he was only 7 years old, his mother ran away to protect him, his older brother, and baby sister.  They stayed off the grid for a long time and he felt isolated.  He eventually ran away winding up with his estranged, yet reformed, father. Ben then shuffled back and forth between his mother and father’s home.

As a teen Ben felt left out of his father’s life, as he had a new wife and child.  Fishing continued to be a constant.  However, Ben continued to rebel, never trusting anyone.  After graduation, he went to college with his long time best friend Nicolas Hamlin, where he just wanted to have fun.  And grow marijuana in his closet, which he eventually began to sell to dealers.

Until one day her met her.  She was the one.  Meeting Grace would forever change Ben’s life. They were very much in love but he tried to push her away, afraid he would hurt her.  In the end, he couldn’t.

Grace gave Ben a beautiful little boy named Coleman Ramsay Murdock.  They were very happy. Until the horrible day that Ben lost the love of his life to complications from her delivery. Cole was still a tiny infant, only 2 weeks old ….. But the drug dealers still wanted their product. 

Ben loved his little boy, but losing Grace and being a single father eventually became too much for him.  He had no choice but to move home and let his estranged mother and stepfather help him and Cole make a new life. He packed up everything, plants included, and moved to Willow Creek,  He took a job with Leroy Chapman, his stepfather, to build out a new subdivision called Newcrest.  He met his fishing buddy of old, Sofia Hamlin there, and they fell in love, with a little push from Ben’s mother and her Tiramisu.

Things were great until Sofia found out about the closet full of marijuana and it all began to unravel.  Enter Ben’s father – Newt Murdock – who saved the day, getting rid of the weed and paving the way for Ben and Sofia to finally have their Happy Ever After….Giving Ben a new beginning.

Not long after they were married, Sofia and Ben had another baby, a little girl named Amelia, Ami for short.  Everyone was happy and eventually Sofia formally adopted Cole. Cole grew into a nice young man, striving to have a love like his parents. Ami would one day take over the company.

Ben was a good father to his two children.  He loved them unconditionally.

Ben and Sofia’s love was evident to everyone.  They could always be found wrapped in each other’s arms.  The Tiramisu given to them by Ben’s mother would forever be a family secret passed down through the generations.

When Cole married Avery, Ben’s longtime assistant, he wasn’t happy, but eventually accepted that his son was happy.  When he became a grandfather of Cole’s twins, he was thrilled and ready to pitch in to help.

Then one day, Ben announced that Ami would take over the company and started a chain of unforeseen events.  Ben almost lost his daughter to a hit and run.  He set out to find who did it,  The trail eventually led to Avery.  She wanted the company for herself.  Avery was convicted of attempted murder and went to prison. Because her plan failed, Ben got to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day.

Ben and Sofia settled happily into retirement. When his ex-daughter-in-law was eventually released from prison, all hell broke loose again. She tried to extort money by kidnapping his granddaughter, her own daughter.  As a result, his granddaughter Reagan, wound up with an old boyfriend that was trying to control her.  Ben came to the rescue, once again taking care of his family.

Ben was confined to a wheelchair towards the end of his elder years, but still enjoyed life to the fullest. Even departing words of wisdom to his youngest great grandchild, Tyler Murdock.

Ben left us not too long afterwards.  Rest In Peace Ben.

A/N: If you are viewing on a desktop my apologies. The progression in picture sizes represents my evolution in monitors from October 14, 2017, when I published the first chapter in Ben’s story, to this post today on April 23, 2020.

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