HOBART | The worst part about her 28-year-old husband's death is that his two preschool children will never get to know him, Sarah Simpson said.

"He deserved it and so do they to know him. ... That's what breaks my heart," she said, referring to son Jake, 4, and daughter Maddie, 2.

Sarah Simpson, 28, describes her late husband Jeremy Simpson as a gentle giant with a larger-than-life personality to match.

"Everyone loved him so much. He drew people to him because of his size and his huge personality," she said.

He was killed Dec. 11 after being struck in the head with a section of fallen refractory while he was working inside a mixer at U.S. Steel's Gary Works.

His friends and family are having a memorial celebration and benefit from 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday at American Legion Post 54, 208 S. Linda St., Hobart.

The days that followed her husband's death, including the visitation and funeral services just 11 days before Christmas, left Simpson in a daze, she said.

She's envisioning Saturday's event as a celebration of his life and an opportunity for friends and family to gather to see how they're doing and swap stories.

She was 16 and he was 17 when the two met at Hobart High School.

They started out as friends, and the friendship soon blossomed into love.

"That was it. We knew it was meant to be," she said.

Jeremy's father, Rick Simpson, recalls his son was so in love with his future wife that the 1996 all-state football standout gave up a sports scholarship at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer so he could come back to Hobart.

They were married on Nov. 30, 2002, and quickly began working toward what her husband referred to as his idea of the American dream -- two children and a home of their own they purchased two years ago in Hobart.

"We were together for 12 years. One day everything was fine and one phone call and everything changed," she said.

She recalls getting the phone call at 2 a.m. from the hospital and initially thinking her husband had just been injured.

But when she got to the Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary she was told by a doctor that her husband was dead.

"It was a nightmare. ... I don't even know how I walked out of the room," she said.

His death also was devastating to his father, Rick Simpson, and stepmother, Shannon Simpson, who live in Oxford, Ala.

"Jeremy had an easy laugh and a great sense of humor. There was never a time we didn't poke fun at each other and enjoy ourselves when we were all together. Even though far apart there was never a day that went by that we didn't speak," Rick Simpson said.

For Sarah Simpson, life without her love never will be the same but she intends to stay strong for their two little children.

"I'm just trying to keep my head up. You never think it will happen to you," she said.