JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce employee killed in a crash on I-10 Friday near Jacksonville’s Westside is remembered as a woman of faith who was kind and positive with everyone she met.
Callie Crump, 36, was killed when, according to investigators, a driver slammed into the back of her Toyota Corolla, which was stopped in traffic.
The crash caused a chain reaction, involving four vehicles, that seriously injured six other people.
Crump's colleagues at the Jax Chamber gathered Monday morning to process their loss and remember Crump, who was a member of Trinity Baptist Church.
Friends from her church also reflected Monday on the woman they knew so well.
“She loved the Lord with all of her heart, and just knowing that she's in a place now where she'll never hurt again is just a comfort for us,” Melissa Beck said.
Crump was very involved and well-known at the church, and Beck said everyone acquainted with Crump is shaken over the young woman's death.
“She was just a precious person. She was a bright light is the best way I can describe her,” Beck said. “She was everybody's friend. She was kind to everyone, very encouraging. I don't think I ever heard her say a negative thing about anybody.”
Beck met Crump in the early 2000s when Crump moved to the area for school and joined a singing group at Trinity.
It’s been a difficult few days for Beck and others at the church, remembering the woman they came to know and respect.
Beck said she and others who knew and loved Crump are coping the only way they know how, by leaning on their faith.
“It's been hard, and you always ask those questions of why. You can beat yourself up asking those questions, but we just have to understand that God has a higher purpose, and we don't know what that purpose is other than the Lord's work for Callie on this earth was done,” Beck said. “That's the only way I can reconcile that in my mind.”
For Beck, moving forward doesn’t just mean remembering Crump, but also using Crump's life as an example to live by.
“I would like to be more like Callie as a person, as a Christian,” Beck said, “and maybe carry her legacy through me that way.”