In Loving Memory of Alex Joseph McCrystal
I live in a small country town, where not much happens. Although one night changed our whole county. It happened on March 30, 2007, one week after my friend Alex’s 17th birthday. Alex was a fun loving, good hearted boy that would light up the room when he entered. He loved to play baseball, and he had played in a scrimmage that night about 15 minutes away from our county. It was a pretty bad night, and it was raining really hard out. At around ten o’clock, Alex was headed to a friend’s house and took a shortcut back through the country on a curvy road. He had just gotten off the phone with his dad, who was begging him to come home… but Alex wasn’t going to go home yet. He was supposed to meet some more friends at a friend’s house and they were just going to hang out. Alex was alone in a Red Z-71 Chevy pick-up truck, one that he had been driving forever. Although HE DID NOT HAVE HIS SEAT BELT ON. He went around a sharp curve, lost control and was ejected from his truck… the truck came to rest on top of him… he was killed instantly. On that night, I didn’t know that this tragic thing had happened to a friend, someone that I had known since kindergarten. The morning after, my aunt called me and was asking me all kinds of questions and trying to explain to me what had happend, I didn’t believe her when she told me he had been killed, and so I called some friends, and the news was true… At first I was in shock and didn’t want to believe it. I mean how can God take such a wonderful person away from us. Alex was such a sweet boy… he had the whole world at his feet… He was cute, funny, sweet and popular at our school. But he wasn’t like most of the popular people, he at least was kind to everyone and never treated anyone bad. His parents are some of the finest people that you could ever meet and his brother is still grieving over his loss. When Alex died, it had the biggest impact that I have ever seen in our community and some still haven’t fully recovered. Alex was killed on a Friday night and on Monday at our highschool, as you walked in there was silence, no one was talking. Everyone in the school was crying and hugging. It was the most horrible thing that I have ever experienced. We had a memorial assembly that morning to let friends share memories of him and there wasn’t a dry eye in our gym. And at his funeral there were so many people there that they were standing outside. Even the baseball teams from surrounding areas came to pay their respects. So please, in Loving Memory of a dear friend, Alex Joseph McCrystal, I am begging everyone that reads this TO BUCKLE UP BEFORE YOU START UP!!! SEAT BELTS DO SAVE LIVES!!! I Love You Alex, and miss you like crazy!!!
- Kayla C.
Livermore, KY