Just got very sad news, my first college roommate, Crystal Chapman who has battled cancer on and off for years, passed away last night. Please pray for her daughter, Carlen Camille Chapman who she leaves behind. Very heartbreaking.
We were randomly assigned roommates at USC – University of South Carolina in the “lovely” BATES HOUSE. We were assigned to the top floor, I think 10th floor. Crystal was a criminal justice major and I was a business major. We decorated our dorm with curtains my mom made for us. Crystal was an awesome roommate and a major plus was she brought a fridge and TV. We each had our own trundle bed, we covered the back cushions to match the curtains. You can see we really kept our rooms clean and organized.
Crystal and I became became fast friends that year, she loved her hometown of Moore SC and would go home often. She often spoke about how much her parents and her high school friends meant to her. Within the first month or so of college, she met her boyfriend Todd Webster. The trips home probably were less and less after that. He was a little bit older, involved in a fraternity that we both became “little sisters” for. She really loved this boy and we all spent a lot of time together.
While we were in the Bates house, we did not like their food. We ended up ordering lots of Domino’s pizza. We were also lazy and didn’t feel like carrying all those empty boxes down to the trash, so we opened our window and threw the boxes out so that they would land on top of the dumpster below. Occasionally they would catch the window sill of a room below ours and would stay there until a wind would carry the box the rest of the way.
Another thing that we loved to eat was oodles of noodles. Add this to the fact that we didn’t keep our room clean, we had lots of domino’s cups with the remains of our noodles. Stacks and stacks of these cups until one day one of us would break and do a MAJOR clean up. Lucky for you, I caught a photo of our lovely dorm room. We really kept it nice.
Crystal invited me to her house for Easter that spring. We had a great time and I remember that since her dad was the minister for their local Baptist church, I learned that they sure go to church a lot, compared to what I was used to.
Shortly after easter, I decided it was a GREAT idea to get my dad a kitten for his 40th birthday surprise. Yes you heard me right, a kitten. Crystal was lucky enough to have a car on campus and she was kind enough to help me with my project. She took me to pick out Oscar 2″ which we hid it in our dorm for a week. We found friends in the hall that would take turns watching the cat. He sure was cute but my dad was quite surprised and gave me a hard time for many years. No, he did not want a cat!
Unfortunately this is where my story ends, as USC and Carrie Hogan did not seem to be a good fit so we parted ways. Crystal and I connected a few years ago on facebook. We both have daughters the same age who both love modeling. We just never found the time to reconnect in real life. However I’ve been watching her journey closely on facebook as she is raising her daughter by herself and battling cancer. I’m relieved that Crystal is no longer suffering but very heartbroken for her sweet daughter that she leaves behind.
Happiness is Possible 