I forgot to add when I said her name was going to be Mandy Michelle because her collarbone was broken when she was born. She did not look like a Mandy Michelle. I held her like something fragile like A piece of Crystal so that’s when she became Crystal the Marie came from the very first best friend Marie Alcorn, who I met when I moved here from California. I knew I would see her again someday and be able to tell her the story of how I name my daughter’smiddle name after her and I did get that opportunity her father Ron Wayne Cobb was never really in her life so she hated her last name Cobb she would meet him again when she was 16 and saw what type of person he was and still is she came home that day and said mama thank you for keeping him out of my life. She did not like anything about him so she was glad to marry Ellis Gardner so she could have her name changed
Crystal was born Crystal Marie Cobb. Her name was going to be Mandy Michelle but they let me know during delivery and what a rough delivery it was. She weighed over 10 pounds but that her collarbone had broken but something had to give so we had to keep her swaddle very tightly for six weeks so it could heal. she was born at 6:04 on May 17, 1977. She passed June 28, 2005 at the young age of 28. I find comfort and knowing that she had started going to church with the gardeners her in-laws and have been saved six weeks before the accident. The accident was June 19, 2005. I gave her the best life I could. She was a happy little girl I could take her in any store and she would never beg for anything. I worked very hard to raise her. She became a very strong, wheeled and independent woman. She was so beautiful her oldest daughter Brittney Marie Fox was seven years old when she passed her father was Michael Fox then Crystal married Ellis Gardner and had Ellisa Marie Gardner. She was three years old when Crystal passed she had been in the car accident with her, but did not get a scratch. I miss her terribly every day? I prayed and prayed for her to live, but she just couldn’t make it most days especially early in the morning when I’m up by myself I strongly feel her presence. I even pretend she’s sitting on the couch and I talk to her after the funeral my arms ache to hold her I felt the need to dig up her grave with my bare hands. I imagine doing that she left behind her two daughters, her stepfather Jimmy Young, and what a good father to her and role model he became. He loved her with all his heart. She also left behind her sister, her little sister who was eight years old at the time Heather Sue Young and who would marry him become Thurmon she had two best friends in the whole world Kerry Hay Tucker and Donna Landry Mangrum they come and visit her grave several times a year and they’ll come and see me they never forget her birthday or her death day. I’ve loved those girls since they were young Crystal my Darling I may not know where you’re at but I love you very very very much. You’re my first born. You were my everything my daughter, my best friend we went through so much together when you were growing up my mine is full of memories some good some bad but I will never forget how much I loved you and by the grace of God I will be with you again someday you’ve been gone 20 years. I’m 65 years old who knows I made love another 30 but I’ll see you when I see you. Love, mother.
