SPRINGFIELD — With the world gripped by COVID-19 restrictions, George Miller III and Gayle Ball were treated to a surprise drive-by parade of guests after tying the knot in May 2020 in a socially distanced, seven-person wedding at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in South Deerfield.

Ball’s friend, who was the ceremony’s officiant, assured the happy couple their commitment to each other was the most important piece and that they could “always have a party later.”

So the Bernardston newlyweds decided to do just that, and set a reception date for Nov. 13, 2021. But the celebration never happened.

The 56-year-old’s life was cut short three days shy of the vow renewal and large reception when she was struck by a vehicle while crossing State Street outside Springfield Central Library, where she worked as a supervisor of technical services and collections. Springfield resident Daymen Benoit, the driver, pleaded guilty in Springfield District Court on Monday to one count of vehicular homicide by negligent operation as part of a deal with the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office. Benoit will begin a six-month jail sentence on Jan. 3.

Miller said no sentence will make it any less difficult to wake up each morning without his wife next to him.

“There was no outcome that was going to bring any realistic comfort or satisfaction,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I think the notion of being satisfied has been off the table from the beginning.”

Benoit was sentenced to 2½ years in jail, with two years suspended. He will also be on probation for three years and will have to perform 100 hours of community service. His driver’s license will be suspended for 15 years. Miller said the punishment is not as significant as he and his family would like but it is what the law allows. Attempts to contact Benoit’s attorney, Bernard T. O’Connor, were unsuccessful on Tuesday.

There have been other fatalities at the site where Ball was struck, and Miller said he hates that it has taken multiple tragedies to generate enough momentum for a concerted effort to make the streets safer. Springfield officials have said the city will add a crosswalk at the location.

Miller said he hopes people remember his late wife for her smile, her willingness to help others and her astounding memory.

“She was certainly the most intelligent person that I ever knew in my life,” he said.

Miller, who works as a sports freelancer for the Recorder, said he was covering a Frontier Regional School boys soccer game in South Deerfield the evening Ball was killed in 2021. He said the game was notable because it was called off with 17 minutes remaining after a player assaulted a referee. He drove back to Magic Wings, which he co-owns with his sister, and filed his story minutes before receiving a call from a woman who rented from Ball. The woman said the Bernardston Police were looking for him. He recalled that he made “a few rushed and panicky phone calls” and was told to drive to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, which he did and was met by a social worker.

“I knew then the news couldn’t be good, if a social worker was involved,” Miller remembered. He said he was soon informed by a surgeon that his wife was dead.

‘A blind-ish date’

Miller explained he and Ball were friends and classmates at Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield in the late 1970s before Miller left to attend Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill.

“I definitely had a crush on her back then,” he recalled.

The two fell out of touch, with Ball attending Middlebury College in Vermont for a year before transferring to Ohio Wesleyan University. In a romantic happenstance, Miller said, he attended Oberlin College, in the same state. He even traveled to Ohio Wesleyan’s campus once to broadcast a sports game. But the two lovebirds’ paths didn’t cross again until 2013, when Pioneer’s Class of 1983 was planning its 30th reunion. Organizers were putting together a prize raffle for attendees and Miller donated Magic Wings passes and a gift certificate to Monarchs Restaurant, the butterfly conservatory’s former eatery.

Miller was unable to go to the reunion because he had to cover a University of Massachusetts Amherst football game in Wisconsin, but he soon got a call from Ball, who said she won the restaurant gift certificate and hoped he would help her spend it on dinner. He agreed and the two dined together on Sept. 6, 2013.

“I always thought of it as ‘a blind-ish date,’” Miller recounted. “We pretty much closed the place that night. Within a matter of weeks, really, we were an item.”

Ball and Miller got engaged at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland in April 2019. They were planning a honeymoon in Scotland for the summer of 2022.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.