8-year-old pens mom letter before she dies in Camp Mystic flood. ‘Made me smile’
The mother of an 8-year-old girl who died during catastrophic flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas received something “very special” after her death.
In one of two letters written to her mother, Blakely McCroy said she was having an “amazing” time at Camp Mystic, according to People.
Blakely died not long after penning the letters, her mother said in a Facebook post. She was one of 27 campers and counselors confirmed dead from the July 4 flooding in Kerr County.
Both letters received by Lindsey McLeod McCrory after her daughter’s death were written on camp stationary, with the first detailing her experiences at the Christian summer camp.
“She had asked me about the activities I had done when I was a kid, and she ended up taking all the same activities,” according to a Today interview with Lindsey McLeod McCrory, who attended the same camp when she was a child and played tennis and went horseback riding like her daughter.
McLeod McCrory told People that receiving the letter was “very special because I knew that she was having the best time of her life.”
Blakley’s second letter wasn’t about her camp experiences, but rather a request to her mother. She asked her mom not to give away her Barbie Dreamhouse before their family’s upcoming move, according to Today.
“I didn’t cry. It made me smile,” McLeod McCrory told the publication. “I could hear her little voice as she wrote it. I’d ask her which toys I could throw out and at first her Barbie Dreamhouse was on the list. But then, I guess she had a change of heart.”
Camp Mystic, which sits along the Cypress Creek and Quadalupe River, became flooded during Fourth of July weekend, with dozens of campers initially unaccounted for, The Associated Press reported.
As of July 14, 131 people have been pronounced dead in the flooding, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Officials said 101 people remained missing, 97 of whom were missing from the Kerrville area.
McLeod McCrory said in a July 8 post on Facebook that her daughter was among those 131 deaths. She said Blakely’s death left her “beyond shattered.”
“Eight years on this earth is far too short a stay,” her mom said. “Still, we know that Blakely was light and life, and she brightened the day of everyone fortunate enough to cross her path. Our little corner of the world is a better and brighter place because Blakely was here.”
Blakely, who attended Memorial Lutheran School in Houston, was described by a relative as “joyful, kind and full of giggles.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 9:58 AM with the headline "8-year-old pens mom letter before she dies in Camp Mystic flood. ‘Made me smile’."