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My brother was asked to be a pall-bearer for Crissa. He was so much closer to her than anyone in our family, since he and her father were best friends growing up. I just sat and cried last night when I thought of my baby brother carrying the tiny casket of the little girl we all held in our arms as a baby. It's still just so mind-numbing.


Here is the latest from our local news on Crissa (link available if you click on the title of this post):

The parents of an 11-year-old girl who died after being pulled out of Lake Hartwell on Memorial Day said that their daughter did know how to swim.

The girl’s parents said that Crissa Powell must have panicked when she couldn’t feel the bottom of the lake after she jumped off a dock.

She was under water for about 10 minutes before witnesses were able to locate her and pull her out.

Two medical students performed CPR to keep the girl alive until she could be taken to the hospital, but she was taken off life support on Tuesday evening and died.

Her parents, Crystal and Nye Powell said that they kept a lock of their daughter's hair and a card with her handprints on it.

Crystal Powell said that she was with her daughter when she died.

"They moved her over in the bed a little bit so that I could get in with her and tell her goodbye. I waited there with her for a while," Crystal Powell said.

The Powells also thanked the witnesses who tried to save their daughter.

Crissa Powell was a fifth-grader at Berea Elementary School in Greenville County. She turned 11 earlier this month.

The school announced plans to plant a tree on school grounds in her honor.