HAYDEN — Life without Jay Hughes, said Diane Hughes, has been “hell.”

“It’s been a long road,” she said Saturday. "It’s been a hard road.”

Diane Hughes had been married to Jay Hughes for about five years when he collapsed while trying to make an arrest on Jan. 4, 2021, at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino. He died two days later.

He was 64.

Jay Hughes worked with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office for 39 years. He retired, then took a job with the Kalispel Tribal Police.

While he looked like an old-school, no-nonsense law officer with a handlebar mustache, Diane Hughes said he wasn’t.

She described him as a “big teddy bear” who was fun to be around.

“He’d give anybody a chance,” she said. “He didn’t want to have to arrest somebody. He always tried to find the best way to help them.”

Diane Hughes misses him so much she couldn’t put it in words, and tried not to cry.

What has helped her to endure, Hughes said, is Beyond the Call of Duty.

“A lot of us wouldn’t be able to go on without you,” she said during a fundraiser for the organization at Selkirk Construction.

The goal of Beyond the Call of Duty is "to ensure that no officer is forgotten, that their families know their loved one has not been forgotten; and that there is recognition, support and understanding to help them heal."

About 100 attended the event on a cool evening that included music, food, a drawing for a 1963 Nova SS convertible and tributes to fallen law officers.

A Beyond the Call of Duty trailer with pictures of more than 600 officers who died in 2021 was parked near U.S. 95.

Jagrut “JC” Shaw, chairman of Beyond the Call of Duty in the Spokane Valley, said while officers who died wore different-colored uniforms, they all bled red.

“We sleep in our beds and our homes because of the men and women like this,” he said.

He said while those who died serving are heroes, the wives and husbands and children left behind are also heroes.

“They are the ones that pick up the pieces because their loved ones are no longer here,” Shah said.

Amy Moden spoke of her husband of 12 years, William Moden, a Colorado State Patrol trooper who was struck and killed by a vehicle in 2019 while responding to a crash.

Her life was completely changed and she faced tremendous challenges without the man she said was also her best friend.

Beyond the Call of Duty helped her deal with the pain and stands with her today.

“They have become a huge part of my life," Amy Moden said. “They’re my family. They have stepped up to be there for me.”

She urged people to donate to the nonprofit that gave her hope.

“And that means more than anything,” Moden said.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said police face danger in many situations, even when approaching a car after a routine traffic stop.

He spoke of Coeur d’Alene Police Officer Greg Moore, who was on patrol when he stopped to check on a man walking in the early morning hours of May 5, 2015, and was shot and killed.

Risk is constant for police, Hammond said.

“We need to always support our law enforcement officers," he said.

Lt. Greg Cochran with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia said the loss of an officer “shatters you to the bone."

“Your life is turned completely around,” he said.

Cochran said Beyond the Call of Duty is comprised of people who are compassionate and sincere.

"I love seeing them but I don’t like the reason why,” he said.