Barbara Lawlor

Rollinsville

Crystal Epperson checked her injuries and realized she had probably broken her hip during the fall down the prospector hole. She was in pain, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying to get out.

"I may be 92 years old," she told herself, "but I have to keep on trying."

Crystal had been all packed and ready to go back to her winter home in Texas on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, and decided she should probably take her dog for a walk, use up some energy. It was around 5 p.m. and she was in her yard in Rollinsville when suddenly she found herself falling down a hole in the ground.

"It was all covered up with leaves and pine needles and I never even knew it was there," she says. "I went down around nine feet and I didn't think I could ever get out, but I didn't want to stay down there either, so I began to crawl up the side of the hole."

Crystal figures it took her about three hours to claw her way up to the ground. Then she had to go at least 50 yards to get to the house. As she started rolling her body and crawling towards the house she could only pray that the door was open; she knew she wouldn't be able to reach the handle. Crystal could only think that she had survived 30 years as a registered nurse with the United States Air Force, reaching the rank of colonel, and she wasn't going to let a simple fall stop her now.

All of Crystal's friends with the Nederland Area Seniors would agree that she is full of spunk and grit and just keeps on going. She grew up in Oklahoma where, after she graduated from high school in 1942, she decided she wanted to be a mechanical engineer. "I liked to take things apart and put them back together again."

However, the schools didn't take females of engineering back then so she chose to become a nurse and studied at a Mennonite Hospital run by Catholic sisters in Kansas. It was the beginning of her 30-year career. After working in a disabled children's hospital she decided she wanted a change and went to the local recruiting office to sign up with the Air Force, looking forward to a life of traveling. She signed up for 30 years and became a first lieutenant RN, training in Shepard Air Force Base in Texas.

Almost immediately she was sent to the medical wards where she had on the job training, learning little by little the Air Force ways. The wounded were coming in from the Korean War. At first she was shocked at the wounds but doing her job helped her overcome those feelings and she became adept at her work.

During her career, she was based in Japan, Illinois, California, Thailand and Turkey. Wherever she was based, she would explore the area, get to know the culture and the people.

"In northern Japan, there was winter for nine months and I remember skiing off the tee on their golf course."

Crystal also earned a brown belt in Tai Kwan Do. When she retired in 1990, she was a colonel, which was as high a rank as women could go in the service. It was time for her to travel.

While she was in the service in Vietnam, her mother had decided to buy her a couple of lots in the mountains for when she returned, and now Crystal spends her summers in Rollinsville, on a hill across from the Stage Stop Inn. She has become an avid member of the Nederland Area Seniors and enjoys having lunch with them. Crystal was planning on driving herself back to Texas.

When she reached the door of her cabin, she saw it was open and she managed to crawl inside where she collapsed on the linoleum floor.

"I knew no one would be looking for me. They thought I was gone, so I just laid there and thought I'd die. But the dog kept barking at me, so I began to pray. 'Please, Lord, let me get up. I hate to be here on the floor."

And then there was a knock on the door.

Bette Ventrella, one of Crystal's neighbors, was on her way to help with the Stop Hunger Now project that was going on at the Teen Center in Nederland. She was being given a ride by Betsy Smart as Bette no longer drives. As they drove past Crystal's house, Bette noticed her car in the driveway and though that was odd, seeing as Crystal was supposed to be on her way to Texas.

The two women went up and knocked on the door and heard a weak voice saying, "Come in."

When Bette walked in she said, "Crystal, what are you doing on the floor?"

The Gilpin County EMT’s arrived and took Crystal down to the Foothills Hospital where she underwent a partial hip replacement. She says as long as they continue bringing her Dr. Pepper, she will be okay. As of Monday, October 17th, she was at Foothills but will soon be released to a rehab facility to help her gain strength to make the trip to Texas. She's had a couple of offers from people to drive her back home.

She says she has lived in that house in the summer for 30 years and never knew that hole was there. Someone will be filling it in, she says.  

Crystal knows she will probably have to go to an assisted living facility in Texas, but says she's okay with that.

"I don't mind. I'm 92 years old. I thought I was going to die until I heard that knock on my door. I just have to accept reality. Why fight it? Going against it just uses up too much energy. I think that people should just keep trying, and if they think something is impossible, they should think that it's not."