Krystal Bateson should be wrapping up her driver’s education classes. She also should be playing softball for the Phenix with her friends, practicing throwing the discus and shot put with her mom, playing guitar with her dad, watching wrestling with her brother, and showing rabbits with her family.

She also should be celebrating her 15th birthday on Saturday.

But her unexpected death while on a trip for a softball tournament on June 13, 2004, in Wellington changed all of that.

The Batesons usually traveled together as a family, but that weekend only Krystal’s mom, Theresa, made the trip with Krystal. David, Krystal’s brother, and Kenny, her father, had stayed home in Baldwin for a golf tournament.

“Krystal knew it was just us going to be me with her so she knew she could work me,” Theresa said. “We went the way she wanted to go, stopped at favorite places, and I listened to her music.”

When they got to the hotel, Krystal and her teammates did what teenage softball girls do on the road. They spent the night braiding each others’ hair, looking at yearbooks and talking about boys.

Krystal had wanted to see “Harry Potter” on Saturday night, but a team dinner had put a damper on that.

“Krystal was so mad because she wanted to see that movie, but once we got back to the hotel and she was with all of her friends, I never heard another word about going,” Theresa said.

The Phenix moms will never forget their final memories of Krystal.

“She was dancing around in her new crazy socks just having a good time,” said Diane Weege, whose daughter Jamie was one of Krystal’s close friends and Phenix teammate.

Someone had taken a picture of Krystal that night on their camera phone. That was the final photo taken of the teenager.

“It was a picture-perfect weekend until Sunday,” Theresa said.

When Theresa tried to wake Krystal up, her daughter was unresponsive. Theresa didn’t want to call Kenny at first because she wanted to try to revive Krystal, Weege said.

After Krystal went to the hospital they gathered the Phenix girls into one room and broke the news.

“My only regret is that David and Kenny were not there,” Theresa said. While Kenny and David made the drive down to Wellington, the Phenix consoled Theresa.

“I feel close to them because they were there when it happened,” Theresa said. “They have that in their minds too.”

The Phenix players were with Batesons for the weeks that came after Krystal’s death and still are today.

“We were together everyday trying to just get through,” Julie Craig said. “Last year everyone was in shock, they were inconsolable. We didn’t know how to help them because we had never had gone through losing someone like that.”

One year later, Krystal’s memory is still alive.

Her name is still on the lineup card that they keep in their dugout. Her ball bag is still there too. The team made a banner in her memory that they hang on their dugout every game. Her number, 2, is on the front of their jerseys, but she is not out at first base anymore.

Teams usually ask the Phenix why they have the number two on their jersey, said Callie Craig, one of Krystal’s best friends and longtime schoolmates.

Krystal’s teammates and friends gathered together at her gravesite a couple days after the one-year anniversary of her death. Meeting all of Krystal’s friends didn’t make it harder for the Batesons; it just reminded them of what they didn’t have anymore.

“It was going to be hard if they were there or not,” Theresa said.

It has been especially hard because they are able to see Krystal’s friends make the inevitable metamorphosis through adolescence that she never got to do.

“It’s hard hearing them talk about playing high school softball because that’s what Krystal always wanted to do,” Theresa said.

“It’s not that we are jealous, but we are just seeing all of the girls and they are growing up so pretty. I really thought Krystal was growing up too fast already. She was taller than me,” Kenny said. “I would have loved to raise her as a teenager.”

At the memorial, Kenny played a song called “She’s My Angel” that he had written for Krystal and would play for her while she was alive.

“She makes me wonder with the name of the song,” he said. “I didn’t write it. It just came out.”

Krystal had said that she wanted to learn how to play the guitar. She was musically inclined and would play the organ at her grandma’s house and instruments such as the oboe or clarinet for the school band.

“She didn’t have the time, but she tried. She said I’ll play guitar with you when I get older,” Kenny said.

Playing music is how Kenny has found refuge since Krystal’s death.

“He’s played more music this year than ever before,” Theresa said.

“Whenever I have troubles I just pick up my guitar,” Kenny said. “My music helps me quite a bit.”

For Theresa, filling the down time without Krystal has been a challenge.

“I had to ask myself, ‘What do I do all of my time?'” I went from being so, so busy to nothing, and that’s been the hardest part,” Theresa said.

She has been helping out her brother, who owns Baldwin Athletic Club, and still eats lunch with the mothers of Krystal’s friends every once and a while.

Theresa spends time with David going to his band concerts and watching him play in the band at the football and basketball games. She was a chaperone for Baldwin High School band’s trip to Orlando, Fla., a trip that Krystal would have gone on also.

David’s interests have also led her to pick up a new hobby.

“I want to pick up golf so I can be out with the guys (David and Kenny),” Theresa said. “I don’t want to be left at home.”

Although Krystal never shared the interest in golf, Theresa said, David and Krystal had a special connection as brother and sister that stemmed from the way they were born 18 months apart to the day.

“We knew if our kids were born in a good environment, had a good home, good parents, had things provided for them, they’d grow up to be good friends,” Kenny said. “And that’s what they were. Good friends.”

They showed rabbits, lambs and pigs together in 4-H. They watched professional wrestling together. David keeps a picture of Krystal wearing a T-shirt with her favorite wrestler, Eddie Guerrero, on it.

“They would watch wrestling every Monday and Thursday. They would never miss it,” Theresa said.

David still struggles with the loss of Krystal because he didn’t lose just a sister.

“He’s got a lot of friends, but he’s lost his best friend. I had really two great kids together, and I still have a great kid,” Kenny said. “He’s probably more lost than we did.”

The way Kenny and Theresa’s lives revolved around their children made this even more of a life-altering experience.

“She wanted to do it all, and we didn’t stop her,” Kenny said. “She just amazed us and amazed us with all she wanted to do. She was so responsible. She was easy; that self-maintenance type of teenager as long as she got her perks.”

Krystal would challenge Theresa and Kenny if they told her she couldn’t do something. “We would always have to explain, ‘OK, Krystal, this is the reason why,” Kenny said.

“As she got older she understood when we said that.'”

The Batesons loved traveling with their children. They started taking weekend road trips throughout the Midwest to show their Rex rabbits when Krystal was 7 years old.

“When we traveled with our children we were doing something we all enjoyed,” Kenny said. “We always tried to stay at a motel with a swimming pool so the kids could swim and have fun.”

At one time the Batesons had more than 130 rabbits and 15 cats. And Krystal had names for all of them. They still have her first cat, Benny Boo. They’ve also raised sheep and lambs.

“That was her 4-H life,” Theresa said.

Kennith Bateson, Father of Krystal Bateson, looks at flower arrangement shaped in a number two, the number Krystal wore while playing for the Phenix softball team.

The Batesons still have the dozens of trophies, plaques and medals that Krystal won

Please see ONE YEAR, page 11

throughout her years showing her rabbits in their living room. That they haven’t changed and they’ve kept her room the same, but everything is different now.

“It’s been really quiet around her without her,” Kenny said. “So quiet you can hear the clock tick.”

The Batesons sold all of their 49 rabbits and that cat population has dwindled to less than 10.

“We just couldn’t see doing it anymore,” Theresa said.

Kenny continued to coach Krystal’s competitive volleyball team, the Midwest Juniors 14-U squad this fall, but it wasn’t the same.

“They weren’t as competitive as they would be with Krystal’s presence on the floor. She would have been disappointed,” Kenny said of the volleyball players, who wore charms on their shoes in Krystal’s memory.

For the Batesons, Krystal’s presence is hard to shake.

“She’s been at my office, in my car, she went so many places that it’s hard not to think of her,” Theresa said. “Its not that I don’t want to think of her, but it’s hard to think of what we don’t have. It’s hard to go to a Phenix game because she’s supposed to be on first.”

Kenny feels the same way.

“It’s hard to go to the activities,” he said. “You want to go there but why? I really enjoyed watching the kids and being in the atmosphere. I tried it at first but it was too hard. I just saw Krystal everywhere.”

The Batesons still do everything together, but it continues to bring up memories of Krystal. Last weekend they went to a golf tournament to help support Baldwin High School. Last year, Krystal had reluctantly gone to help run the beverage carts.

“I looked down the fairway on six and see a load of girls on this one cart and there’s Krystal driving,” Kenny said.

Krystal was in her element driving the cart and being with her friends.

“I haven’t met a person that didn’t like Krystal or even had anything bad to say about her,” Kenny said.

Whether it was golf carts or driving Kenny’s truck around the yard, Krystal did anything she could to get her driving practice in.

“She would be driving around the yard and when she got to the corner she’d always put her turn signal on,” Theresa said. “She’d come in and ask, ‘Mom did I do a good job on using my signals?'”

She helped David, who was one year ahead of Krystal in school, study for his driving test.

“She was really looking forward to driving,” Kenny said.

Sometimes Kenny sees a girl driving down the road and it reminds him of Krystal.

“It stirs up all these memories and ‘what ifs’ and ‘shoulda, couldas and wouldas,’ but you try to put them on the back burner because there is always something there to remind you.”

In their year of firsts without Krystal, the Batesons have been exposed to a new way of life that has challenged them and caused them to deviate from their expectations.

“I used to think I was the strongest person ever,” Kenny said. “I found out this year that I’m the weakest person in the world. I’ve never had these feelings, not even for myself.”

Not getting to see his daughter drive or do the things she wanted to do prevents him from following the plans he had set out for his family.

“I thought I had everything as a person and as a dad,” Kenny said. “That’s been shot down. My goals were to raise my kids giving them everything I never had. We’ve had such good intentions.”

They didn’t put up a tree for Christmas; they didn’t even want to celebrate Christmas if they couldn’t do it without her.

“We do what we feel we have to do, and that’s OK,” Theresa said.

Next year they will put up a small tree and add ornaments each year in Krystal’s memory.

The Batesons would give anything to fill the void Krystal’s death has left in their lives.

“I’ve been with Theresa when someone has been complaining about their daughter and she just looks at them and says “I’ll take her,'” Weege said.

But thinking about all of the good times they have had helped them to cope.

“You think of good things because there’s not really any bad memory,” Kenny said.

“I have no regrets. You read all of these horror stories about families, but she lived life to the fullest and loved us and we loved her,” Kenny said. “That’s what helps me — the 13 years we had with her. They were great years. They weren’t bad at all.”