Cynthia Lynn Williams Crook a resident of Lewis Center, Ohio, formerly of Lewisville, Texas, died unexpectedly on August 29th at the age of 46 at Mt .Carmel, St. Ann’s Hospital.

Cyndi is survived by her husband Jeff, and her children, Parker, Jackson, Garrett, and Mason; her parents, Johnny and Rosalie Williams; her sister and brother-in-law Missy and Mike Webb, mother-in-law Charlotte Crook; mother-in law Grace Crook; sisters and brother-in-law Kris and Matt Cirone, Karen Crook, and Kristy Brazell along with many nieces and nephews and other extended family members. She is preceded in death by her son Nicholas Crook in 2001, father-in-law Retired Col. R.H. Crook in 2008 and brother-in-law Gary Crook in 2014.
Cyndi was born in Atlanta, Georgia on July 28th, 1969. She graduated from Lewisville High School in 1987 and attended the University of North Texas. She worked as a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines following college. She married Jeffrey Crook on November 14, 1992. Together they welcomed 4 sons into their family who were the most important part of her life.

Cyndi was a special person with a passionate zeal for life and a legendary sense of humor. She never encountered a stranger and was a special friend to everyone who knew her. Her passionate love of all animals especially cats, dogs, and horses was well known. Cyndi took great pride in her sons’ scholastic accomplishments and raised them along with Jeff to be polite, kind, and caring individuals. She will be deeply missed by her friends, family, and all who knew her. Heaven is surely a little brighter now that Cyndi’s beautiful spirit is there.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to either the Cyndi Crook’s Family Support Fund at https://www.gofundme.com/CyndiCrook that will help alleviate the financial strain of medical bills and help Jeff with supporting the boys through this life changing adjustment for their family or donate to The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital-Congenital Heart Program (givetomott.org).

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:21

The Lord gave the World the sweet gift of Amelia Hope Wright on the late evening of November 19th 2002. After her arrival, a bath, some swaddling and getting much love on that first day of her life we remembered that we were still undecided on a name for this little treasure. We had gone over many names, some were sweet, others honoring; but for some unknown reason these names were not meant for this child. When the time came the next day to be discharged, the hospital required a name for her birth certificate. We were hard pressed. Christian took a walk to the cafeteria and on his way back to the room the Lord whispered “Amelia” to him. Amelia! He returned to the room and said to Jennifer, “what about Amelia”? Tearing up she said she LOVED it!... Amelia.

Over the course of nearly 13 years, our little one picked up many other names of endearment including: Milly, Milly-Girl, Mills, Mills-Bills, Milly-Bunz, Lu, Boo Boo, and Boo Bear. We also called her Princess, Beautiful, Blondie, and more recently “Tween-Scene”. But the name Amelia was from the Lord and means ‘flatterer, beloved, industrious and trustworthy’ and if you knew Amelia you knew God’s name for this little girl was perfectly fitting.

Amelia means “Flatterer” which is to try to please by complimentary remarks or attention. As many of us here know, Amelia was sweet natured and wanted to please and nurture others around her. She loved her family, her friends, animals of nearly any kind, and of course babies and small kids. She loved to babysit and volunteer for “Walkers 1” on Sunday mornings here at Bridgeway. Although severely allergic, she would always want to pet, hug and snuggle any nearby kitty or doggie.

Amelia was created sweet but also balanced with some spice and we had our times of correcting her strong will as she grew. We learned that the spankings that were so effective with Adam seemed to have little or no affect on this sweet little girl and that she was never one for backing down if she felt she was right and you were wrong. We believe one of her first full sentences was, “My word for you is NO.” Over time, however, we also learned that along with this strong will was the flatterer and she would not allow anything to come between us. With a little time to cool off; she would always come back to sincerely apologize, provide complementary remarks and make amends.

Amelia means “Beloved” which is someone dearly loved, greatly loved, dear to the heart. And she was. When we found out we were going to have a baby girl, Jenn’s first reaction was a slight panic. She knew how to be a mom of a boy, but a girl? She felt like she didn’t know how to do girl hair…how to dress them…how to handle all the shoe options! But that girl arrived and we knew right away it was meant to be…this precious girl grabbed hold of our hearts and she was beloved. Fiercely beloved. We remember Grandpa Jerry holding her for the first time and saying, “she is mine.”

Amelia captured the hearts of all she came in contact with. She had the uncanny ability to see into the hearts of people, to see their needs and reach out. She was drawn to the kids on the fringe, the ones who seemed alone and needed a friend. She was a beloved friend to many and cared deeply for them all. As much as we disliked Instagram, this tool has allowed us to see how much she was beloved by the many friends who have commented about her and posted sweet memories of our Amelia. She was blessed with amazing friends…which had been our prayer as her parents since she was an infant. God is good.

She is beloved by her family…the sole girl amongst all the boys in our immediate family…she could certainly hold her own! She involved herself in all their games and conversations…however always made it very clear to her boy cousins when she needed some “girl time” which usually involved locking herself in a closet or going on a walk with mom. The painful job of pouring through hundreds of pictures for her slide show has reminded us of how much she is cherished by her family. She loved to spend time, equally, with her “City Grandparents” Nana and Papa, and her “Country Grandparents” Grammy and Grampa. She had many special “girls only” moments with her aunties which she cherished. She loved them dearly…she was loved dearly…she is beloved.

Amelia means “Industrious” which is devoted, hard working and diligent. Our Amelia was the true definition of industrious. She was devoted to her faith, her family, and her friends and sometimes – as we all do - she struggled to balance them since each one was so important to her. She was also devoted to cherished family traditions, her teachers (she was truly blessed to have so many good ones) and causes that she saw as just, such as helping and caring for animals, watching over small children and even recycling.

Amelia was also an unusually hard worker when her mind was fixed on something that was important to her and she was brilliant at finding solutions to any obstacle that lay in her path. Once when she was around two, she found herself separated from her beloved “Binky” that was precariously perched on a shelf in her room. Stacking various books and toys on top of a chair she reached that binky just as mommy walked in to witness the feat. In her mind there was no need to call anyone for help. Why would there be? She could get the job done by herself. She was able to quickly learn and navigate mp3 players at 4 years old and was always the resident iPhone expert of our house. Over the last year, with our blessing, Amelia started her own You Tube channel. She creatively and diligently came up with topics, shot and edited the video, and uploaded it to her site. This sounds easy enough but she was working with a very old and slow computer and editing software that was from the 1990s. Through blood, sweat and many tears she did not back down. Working hours trying to figure out how to do this when most of us would have simply given up, she persevered, overcame and willed it to work. She became a self taught social media expert on both You Tube and Instagram and quickly generated hundreds of followers.

Like her Great Gramp and Gram Wright, Papa and Dad before her, she was gifted at sales. If there was something motivating her we could count on well thought out arguments to support her beliefs. When she wanted a kitten or a hamster, she would research the different types, how best to care for them, how much it would cost to purchase them, their housing needs and an ongoing budget for food. This was all then neatly placed onto a board for a presentation to Mom and Dad. She loved setting up and running lemonade stands in our court, marketing herself in the neighborhood for babysitting services, and garage sales where she would have all of her items neatly arranged ready for sale.

There are countless stories that would remind us that our Amelia was our industrious one.

Amelia means “Trustworthy” which is reliable, dependable, honest, honorable, and true. This part of her name brings to mind the many Sunday mornings we had to get to church early because she had to be at Kidsway to serve. She would say, “Those kids need me there, I told them I would see them next week.” She took this job very seriously and it brought great joy to her heart to be with these little ones. She was dependable.

She was very honest…sometimes brutally. She was quick to tell you, always gently however, if something you wore was not right or if your hair looked a bit off. She had a hard time not confessing when she had done wrong. One of the sweetest videos we have of her captures this at about age 4. She had the camera and was walking down the driveway randomly filming things. She paused and said “what the?” which we had told her didn’t sound right coming from a young child. Her next words were, “Oh no I just said “What the” and it’s on the TV…I need to go tell mommy!” She continued to film as she came into the kitchen and confessed to mommy as she was standing at the stove. “Mommy I just said “What the” on the TV!” Mommy gently said that is ok and thanked her for telling her. This honesty continued into her later years as she would begrudgingly confess things she had done or said that weren’t kind. We always told her this is a good quality and it means the Holy Spirit is at work in her. She was also very honest with her love. She never hesitated to tell us she loved us.

Now you know the story of her name, the meaning of her name, and hopefully her character and heart. This precious gift that the Lord gave to us, He has now taken away. Too soon…not fair…why? These are all things we wrestle with, as I am sure many here do also. As we sit on this bench of suffering we must remember that we do not sit alone. We sit with a God who is well acquainted with suffering. A God who had to watch His one and only beloved son nailed to a cross to bear the sins of the world…to bear our sin…your sin. Because of this we have the Hope of Heaven…we know we will one day see our Amelia. We know she is in a place that God has prepared for her…we know she is safe…loved…and we are certain she can be a mermaid whenever she chooses. However, we also know that if Amelia was given the choice, she would choose to stay there by her Savior’s side. We who are left here on earth must also make a choice. What do we do with this great loss and grief…how do we respond? We can choose bitterness, anger, avoidance, denial, addictions to drown the pain. Or we can choose to enter into the darkness and suffering, trusting that God also suffers with us…He is here on this bench with us…and He is our ONLY great and true comforter and Peace that surpasses all other.

Please consider Amelia’s name…Flatterer, Beloved, Industrious, and Trustworthy. We must choose to live our life to honor her name…and we must choose to glorify the name of our Lord who gave us this precious gift. May the name of the Lord be praised!

My father was a amazing man he served 21 years in the service he loved and raised 7 kids. He did everything for us kids my dad was my rock he is gonna be greatly missed by ask who knew him. I love you daddy

**In Loving Memory** Sandra V. Hawley, best known to all as “Sandy”, 67 years of age, passed into everlasting rest on September 1, 2015.

Sandy was born on February 20, 1948 in Massachusetts. At the time of her passing, she was a 40 year resident of Branford, CT.
Sandy was a loving and faithful wife of 46 years to Charles Hawley, Sr. She was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter and friend.
Sandy was preceded in death by her father Clayton Cornell and mother Marion Beanland Cornell. Survivors include her husband and two sons Charles Hawley, Jr. and Keith Hawley, all of Branford. She is also survived by her three cherished grandchildren – Steven Hawley, Ashley Ann Hawley and Shannon Marie Pritchard and other relatives.
During her life she endeared herself to all who knew her by her cheerful, light-hearted disposition and loving ways, carrying sunshine and joy wherever she went. Sandy truly loved life to the fullest embracing it through family, friends and life’s simple pleasures.
Sandy, our Angel that lived, laughed, and loved. Her signature gift of joy, shown through her constant smiling, laughter, and joking around, will never be forgotten.

David James Garrett Jr., age 19, died Saturday, August 29, 2015, in a motorcycle accident in Palmer, TX. He was born on January 2, 1996, in Tomball, TX. He was preceded in death by his father, David James Garrett Sr. and maternal grandfather, Ray Clodfelter. He is survived by his mother, Kellie Ann Bretz and step-father, George Bretz; sisters, Lauren Bretz-Hampton (Cedric), Cara, Savannah and Shiloh Bretz; brothers, Chase Garrett and Troy and Wyatt Bretz; grandmothers, Shirley Corlett-Garrett and Sandy Clodfelter; paternal grandfather, James Garrett; paternal great grandparents, Marcell and Mary Corlett and Sara Garrett; niece, Kadence Hampton and a host of aunts, uncles, cousins and many close family friends.

David James spent summers in Mobile, AL. with his father, and in 2012, he moved from Texas to Alabama where he completed high school. He enjoyed tinkering on old trucks, playing video games and spending time with his bulldog, Tiger. Recently he had returned to Texas to attend Lincoln Technical College for welding and was at the top of his class. He had started work at Time Warner Cable on August 24, 2015. He was very excited about school and work and had a very bright future ahead of him. David James will be greatly missed by his family and friends and will live on in our hearts always.

Thomas Bronsted was born on May 12th, 1939 in Tomahawk, WI. On July 21st, 1960 he married Diane Gustafson in Park Falls, WI. His first son, Peter, was born in 1961; his second son, Andrew, was born in 1963; his third son, Daniel, was born in 1966. He had five grandchildren - Nicole, Tommy, James, Anna and Emily.

He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Sherry Jones (Gustafson) and her husband Dave Jones, and their children (niece and nephew to Tom), Lenora Copper and Mathew Jones. On his side, he is survived by his sister-in-law, Janice Bronsted (her husband and brother to Tom, Roger, passed away about 20 years ago) and their children (nephew and nieces to Tom), Nathan Bronsted, Rebecca Bronsted, and Sarah Chew.

Tom was a self-made man. He lost his father at the age of 9 and his mother at the age of 21. He started working at the age of 13 at the local drug store and advanced to a gas station owned by a cousin around age 16. He began working for Thorpe Finance around age 19. After his marriage at the age of 21, he leveraged his finance experience to become a banker. After about 20 years, he passed the Series 7 Securities exam and became a Registered Broker. For about 20 years, he served his clients and supported his family before retiring in 2004.

Tom spent his final 11 years with his lifetime partner and wife Diane and their three sons, five grandchildren and multitudes of cousins and friends. He enjoyed playing golf, disagreeing with liberal talking heads on FOX news, watching his beloved Green Bay Packers, and fishing from their dock in Blairsville, GA before moving back to Sarasota, FL.

Tom was a loving, caring husband, father and friend to all. He will be missed by all that were lucky enough be a part of his life.