Girdwood woman struck by train remembered for her sense of adventure and meaningful friendships

Friends say they used to joke that Kristal Lavender would give her life for her beloved black and white spotted dog, Gideon.

On April 6, she essentially did.

Lavender, 30, was struck and killed by a southbound Alaska Railroad freight train near Bird Point.

She had been walking with a friend on a dirt path near the tracks. As the train drew near, Lavender realized several of the dogs with them, including Gideon, were in its path, her friend Keith Myers said. She rushed to save them.

Lavender pulled Gideon out of the train’s way, but she was so close to the tracks that she was hit by a portion of the train, Myers said. A friend’s dog was also struck and killed.

Lavender’s death was shocking for her close friends. It also hit all of Girdwood hard, said her friend Becks Rumey.

“Everyone that lives here has been there — we’ve all walked across that spot,” Rumey said. “We all walk across and we go hang out on all those rocks, or sit out and have campfires. It was unfathomable that it was one of us (who) got hit.”

Girdwood is a small, tight-knit town, and “everybody cares about each other in the community,” said Michelle Weston, chief of Girdwood Fire and Rescue. “And I think it’s just that sense of loss of one of our community members.”

More than 180 of Lavender’s friends gathered in Girdwood on Wednesday night to celebrate her legacy of adventure, her spirit and the countless friendships she forged during her seven years in Alaska.

Lavender was working at Girdwood Brewing Co. and the Sitzmark Bar & Grill, Myers said, so she was a familiar face to everyone in town.

Several businesses in the area fashioned desserts in her memory in the weeks after her death. Jack Sprat made a Strawberry Lavender Tart and Wild Scoops crafted a “Kristal Lavender and Honey” ice cream specifically for the celebration Wednesday.

Anchorage’s chaplain canine, Cupid, along with national crisis response dogs stopped by popular spots in Girdwood the week after her death to offer support to people in the community, said Margaret Griffo, of the Alaska Police and Fire Chaplains.

Lavender was destined to end up in Alaska, her parents said.

She first made her way here seven years ago for a job as a tour guide with Holland America working on the Alaska Railroad. She lived in the state seasonally for several years before making it her permanent home.

At just 2 or 3, the little girl from Florida showed an early love of winter when she climbed atop a heaping pile of snow while visiting New Hampshire with family.

“I made it!” her father, Randy Lavender, said she yelled proudly.

At age 10, she pointed out a camper van and told her parents she’d live there when she grew up — she wanted a life of adventure, not tied to one specific place.

Lavender spent years chasing her insatiable sense of adventure across the world and the country, living in Europe, New Zealand, Colorado and Salt Lake City, her parents said.

“And then it was just Alaska, forever,” Randy Lavender said.

Kristal Lavender made friends everywhere she went and sought out meaningful connections, her friends said.

She met April Napolitano working on the railroad. Napolitano said she moved to Alaska while grieving the death of her boyfriend. She was struggling with the loss, she said, and didn’t expect to make friends that summer.

But Lavender seemed determined to befriend her, Napolitano said.

“She was the first friend I made up in Alaska,” she said. “We’re complete opposites, but she was the person I needed in my life at that time. She just really made me vulnerable and soft when I had this hard exterior.”

Napolitano was one of the many friends who became roommates with Lavender during her first few summers in the state. Emma Wishau, who lived with her in 2015, said they packed into a two-bedroom apartment in Anchorage’s Fairview neighborhood that summer with five other newfound friends.

Life with Lavender was never boring, Wishau said. She was “an explosion of energy,” which led to long bike rides across Anchorage, impromptu game nights and hours spent digging through racks at local thrift shops.

His daughter loved the mountains, Randy Lavender said, but it was the people she met while working at the Alaska Railroad who captured her heart.

During the summers, Lavender ended up realizing that early dream: She lived in a GMC van she transformed into a home, building a bed frame and cabinets for storage.

She loved the adventure and independence the van provided, her parents said.

Lavender’s stories sometimes worried her father to the point that he joked it’s why his hair turned gray. But she lived a life she loved.

Her parents said they were endlessly proud of their daughter for pursuing what made her happy.

“As a parent, you always hope that you’ve given them the background to make good decisions and that they’re kind,” Wendy Lavender said as she glanced around at the crowd gathered Wednesday to celebrate her daughter. “And this is proof we did a good job.”

There is still a lot of grief to unload, many of her friends said Wednesday as they exchanged hugs and wiped away tears. But, they said, there are reminders of Kristal everywhere, from the lavender northern lights that danced across the sky in the days after her death, to things as simple as cooking a sweet potato, a food her friend Sean Ryan said she ate obsessively.

And then there’s Gideon — the dog Wendy Lavender described as her daughter’s soulmate and best friend.

He moved through the groups of people Wednesday wearing a bandana adorned with the word “mom” while he collected scratches and pets.

“It’s like a part of her is still here,” Ryan said.