In an instant last year, Amanda Crowder’s family grew from two kids to five.
Two days before Thanksgiving in 2015, Crowder’s sister, 37-year-old Monica McMillon, was shot to death inside her Alton Park home while her three children watched a movie upstairs.
In the days after, Crowder planned her sister’s funeral. Picked out the flowers and the obituary. She and her husband took in McMillon’s children: 4-year-old Matthew Nichols, 7-year-old Tatianna McComb and 17-year-old Malik Jones. Somehow, they got through the holidays.
The first few months were a blur, Crowder said.
“It’s been a year, I’ll tell you that,” she said. “It’s been a year.”