CRESTVIEW — Friends, classmates, family members and acquaintances of Bravon Childs and her family gathered in Twin Hills Park Friday evening to support one another and the 18-year-old's parents, Kimberly Keen and Heath and Samantha Childs.
The 2015 Laurel Hill School alumna, described by Karl Lavine, a friend of Bravon's father, Heath Childs, as "funny, cheerful and kind," died following a May 6 car wreck on U.S. Highway 90.
"She was just an all-around good person," Lavine said during Friday night's vigil. "She was a good girl."
More than 30 supporters attended the vigil organized by Brandy Crawford, a friend and colleague of Heath.
"There's a lot of people who love him and care about him," Crawford said.
'SHE LOVED LIFE'
After the tears flowed at Bravon's Thursday funeral and burial in Svea, Friday's vigil was a celebration of a girl who made everyone in her wide circle of friends and family laugh.
"She was something else," Heath Childs said. "She could meet a room full of strangers and leave a room full of friends."
Surveying supporters arrayed on the Twin Hills Park pier and gazebo, sitting on the grass alongside the pond, gathered under the picnic shelter and walking the half-mile track in contemplation, Childs said the turnout was indicative of how beloved his daughter was.
"This is a testament to who she was," Childs said. "She never met a stranger. She loved everyone. She loved life."
Supporters remembered Bravon's quirks and passions.
"She loved elephants, basketball, the Gators, the beach, her dog," cousin Cheyann Goodwin said. "She loved everything."
"She was a good kid," Bravon's grandmother, Cathy James, said. "She loved to have fun. She was always smiling."
"She was a good-natured young 'un," added "Pawpaw" Nat James.
MESSAGES OF LOVE
Bravon's sister, Taylor Henderson, laughed as she described practical jokes her sister played on her.
"She was a handful," Taylor said. "When she wasn't sleeping she was with her friends. She was a goofball. She didn't have no enemies. Everyone loved her. We used to joke with each other all the time, but we never got mad at each other. It was too funny."
Crawford said such memories of Bravon will never be forgotten.
During the vigil, folks wrote their thoughts and memories on note cards for Heath and Samantha and dropped them in a decorative box inscribed, "A hundred hearts would be too few to carry all my love for you."
"When it's the middle of the night, he can reach out and read these messages of love," Crawford said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Family, friends and supporters hold vigil for family of Laurel Hill teen