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| Crystal Veytia |
Crystal Veytia was living the life she wanted when she boarded a Moscow train to her teaching job one final time. Happy and upbeat as she headed to work, Veytia, 28, experienced a sudden cardiac arrest and died. The Moscow Metro operator stopped the train to let paramedics board, but it was too late.
From 2005 until 2011 Veytia was an institution at the SWC Writing Center and a tutor known for her easy rapport with fellow students, her big laugh and her insistence on spending as much time with each student as she could. After the Chula Vista resident earned her bachelor’s degree in English at SDSU, she decided to go abroad to teach.
Andrew Rempt, professor of English and director of the Academic Success Center, said she had not originally planned to teach in Russia.
“She was going to teach English in Japan, which is a lovely idea,” he said. “Then she got to LAX the day of the March 2011 earthquake. She was ready to get on the plane but was told, ‘No. The flight’s canceled. There’s a massive earthquake and tsunami there.’”
It could have been much worse, said Laura Brooks, Veytia’s close friend and fellow SWC tutor. It might have been, had she not had a history of being chronically tardy.
“She was supposed to take an earlier flight,” Brooks said. “She would have been arriving there just as it hit. But she asked the airline to take a later flight because she was always late. For once that helped her out.”
Brooks said when taking that job became impossible, Veytia remained in California, her future uncertain.
“(Crystal) was really upset about not being able to go to Japan,” Brooks said. “She was stuck here for six months, not knowing if she still had a job. It was hard on her, but she was finally given a list of different countries she could choose from and she picked Russia.”
The former Bonita Vista High School student spent the past six years sharing a home in Chula Vista with her aunt, Mary King, whom she insisted on calling “Tia Roomie.” She grew networks of real life friends as well as online ones and her death impacted them all. After receiving the news, four of her friends – Brooks, Hana Lohorn, Emily Lohorn, and Ben Nahoum – got tattoos in her honor. All four still work as tutors in the writing center.
When her friends were asked about Veytia, none fell silent or became teary-eyed. Each broke into a favorite story about their irascible friend. Some were sophisticated, some were ribald and most were funny. Veytia, they agreed, was alternately brilliant, goofy, generous and exasperating. Losing her, they said, was like losing a close family member. Then, after a beat, they could not resist telling another Crystal story.
Rempt said Veytia was a student of his when he realized she would make a good tutor.
“Three times she had to take my English 116, the second half of English Composition,” he said. “She got through the third time and she was wonderful. She was delightful, smart and funny. She was able to work with the other students very well. I knew she’d do really well here. And she did.”
Rempt estimated that in the five years Veytia worked as a tutor, she served about 1,000 students – most of whom loved her, he said.
“She had incredible diagnostic skills,” he said. “She was able to figure out what people needed, and she was so unbearably friendly. Even when she was ill she was cheerful.”
Brooks said Veytia’s sense of humor and attitude helped her to help others.
“Crystal spoke Spanish,” Brooks said. “She didn’t have much of an accent. When students come in and find out we speak Spanish, they want to use it for the whole session. But Crystal always encouraged students to speak English instead. She was awesome at making them feel comfortable with her.”
Co-worker Hana Lohorn said Veytia spent as much time with her students as she could.
“Students usually had 20 minute sessions, but Crystal’s always went over,” she said. “She was proud of that because she gave the students whatever time they needed.”
Rempt said Veytia had interpersonal skills that he does not have, but also acknowledged that she could be a character.
“She had the patience I don’t always have,” he said. “The grace, the kindness and the brains. She was wonderful. She was also a pain in the ass. She was remarkably mischievous. I don’t think she ever showed up on time for work – ever.”
He said one particular example stood out.
“She blew off work and ended up going to Coachella (for a rock festival),” Rempt said. “We’re Facebook friends and she posted, ‘My dreams came true! I’m going to Coachella!’ I responded, ‘You know I’m on here, right? You know that I know?’ She got back and I told her we’d have to talk about it. She said, ‘Do we really?’ But it was part and parcel. You’re not going to get incredibly smart, talented, vivacious Crystal without getting pain-in-the-ass Crystal.”
Emily Lohorn said the tutoring team had extensive relationships outside of work. They spent time at each other’s houses, went out together and traveled together.
“My favorite memories of Crystal don’t come from work,” she said. “Crystal was Queen of the call-in. She was really big on getting up and going. She wanted to get in a car and go anywhere. It was even better if you didn’t know how to get there first. We did a lot of questionable road trips.”
Hana Lohorn agreed.
“She was the hub and we were her spokes,” she said.
Brooks described Veytia as irrepressible.
“I consider myself restless,” she said. “I always want to be doing something. She was impetuous. The two of us together was kind of lethal. But it was so fun. I’d have an idea, she’d say okay. It was never about how we were going to do that or that we shouldn’t. It was okay, let’s go.”
Veytia took her work in Russia seriously, Brooks said.
“Ironically, she’d never been a moment late to work in Russia,” Brooks said. “Her students were so surprised by her not being there that they went to the administration. They found out quickly and contacted her family here. It’s a blessing we found out as fast as we did.”
Rempt said it is difficult for her friends to describe exactly what Veytia meant to them.
“The language fails,” he said. “There are not even words to explain the feeling, much less what’s been lost.”
Hana Lohorn said Veytia will live forever in her memory.
“I knew from the first time we hung out that she had changed my life,” she said. “If I had a baby, I’d name her after Crystal. I’ll never forget her.”
Brooks agreed.
“More than anyone outside my family, I was devoted to her,” she said.
Emily Lohorn said Veytia could elevate any gathering.
“Crystal had the gift of gab,” she said. “Any time you were lucky enough to be in a room with her, you felt like you had never been wittier, never been funnier, never been better. Everything was a laugh riot with her.”
Rempt said that even though it is hard to explain to others, he knows how he feels.
“I love her and I miss her,” he said. “And… I love her and I miss her.”
Veytia’s family has created the Crystal Veytia Scholarship Fund at Pacific Trust Bank. Memorial contributions will be appreciated.
Story at the Sun.
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