OCTOBER 17, 2025 FROM THE ARCHIVES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 Remembering my sister, Crystal Marie Ludwig I don’t really know how to start and this is hard for me to write. So first let me say R.I.P. sissy — you will forever be missed but never forgotten, I promise you that. Crystal lived a very hard life. From the day she was born she was fighting for her life because our mom had her over three months early. She was so little she had to wear baby doll clothes. Then, at the age of two-and-a-half, she became a big sister to me. When she was just five years old she was already raising me due to our parents’ drug and alcohol addictions. One day she almost burnt down the house (at the age of five) because she was trying to cook for me. I was crying because I was hungry and she couldn’t get nobody up to feed me, so she decided to do it herself. It was me and my sister against the world from that day forward. She was the one I always looked up to, and as long as she was around I always knew I would be taken care of and safe. No matter what happened in life I always had my sister. When we became a little older and she started hanging out with her friends, I would tag along with her. Even though she didn’t always want her little sister there, she would always give in and end up letting me go with her. I always went everywhere with her, so when she would move in with our mom I was right there with her, moving in also. And when she would go back to our grandma’s house, I was once again with her. I always knew that I was safe if I was with my sister because she would never ever let anything happen DOMESTIC from last page people who live in temporary, transitional houses have experienced repeated acts of violence and abuse. The violence and abuse, in addition to the hostility and aggressiveness, beg for a legal and community intervention. This writer has learned a lot about domestic violence and abuse from survivors. They have educated me TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 to me. I grew up my whole life being known as, “Oh, you’re Crystal’s sister.” Yes, we was sisters and we did act like sisters, so we didn’t always get along. We did have our fights and arguments and, yes, we did do messed-up stuff to each other, but at the end of the day she was my blood and my big sister. She was way more to me than just my sister. She was — and still is — my best friend, my mom, my protector, my heart and so much more to me. Crystal was an amazing woman. She was a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, a friend, a fiancée, and most importantly she was a mother to five beautiful children who she loved more than anything. The hardest thing that I have ever had to do is say goodbye to my sister. I never would have thought in a million years that I would have to go through something like this at such a young age. We was supposed to get through all this together and fight this demon together. When I say me and my sister did everything together, I mean we did everything together. I mean we even about topics such as the Violence Against Women Act, mental cruelty, the battered women syndrome and many other issues including sexual assault awareness. It should be noted that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is incumbent on all of us to be involved in programs for all events which attempt to prevent and end domestic violence and abuse. did jail time together. We also had our first child in the same year. She had her daughter in the beginning of the year and I had my son at the end of the year, but they was still born in the same year. When I came out to the street life back in 2016, my sister was in jail and my dad told her what I was doing. She wrote me a letter begging me to stop and not go down that path, but I didn’t listen to her. All I did was cry and then fold it up and put it in the backseat of my car. Not too long after that I ended up getting into a relationship with — come to find out — one of my sister’s exes. But I went to go and visit her and told her who I was with and gave her a phone number so she could get a hold of me. When she got out of jail, instead of staying on the road to recovery she came back to the streets to protect me. She said that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself knowing that I was in the streets without her. So, she came back out here and made it known to everyone that crossed our path that I was her sister and if they messed with me then they had to deal with her. Me and Crystal have been through a lot together, from childhood to adulthood. We have had our ups and downs, but I can say that no matter what, when I needed her she was always there. All I had to do was say, sissy I need you, and she was there. I also want to make it very clear to everyone that she was clean. There was NO DRUGS found in her system when she was killed. I know how hard it was Crystal Ludwig (above) cared for and protected her sister Tabitha until passing away. for her but she was fighting every day. I will never forget the last day that I seen her. She was fighting so hard to stay clean and it makes me feel so good to know that she pushed through the cravings she was having that day. I am very proud of my sister. That’s the reason why I’m going to continue my fight on the road of recovery: to make her proud of me the way I am proud of her. My sister is the strongest woman I will ever know. Life is going to be hard without her, I already know that, but I also know that she wouldn’t want me to ever give up. She would want me to move forward and keep fighting so that’s what I am going to do. Originally published in Groundcover News August 2018.
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