​From:

Dan Coffey (cousin)

 

My cousin Jan was a good friend, the kind who stayed a friend over her lifetime, even if you didn’t fully deserve it.  

 

We were all Crystal Cousins, My earliest memories of Jan involve the arrival of her parents, Virginia and Chuck, with their trailer tent, which was usually set out near the one-room Sperry Cabin in Crystal, Colorado, close to where the giant red poppy flowers would erupt each year.

 

The Sperry Cabin is located very near Maxine’s cabin and served as an adjunct gathering place for late-night rounds of Monopoly or cards illuminated by white-gas lamps, a staple, along with flashlights, for those who spent summers in the circa 1890 mining ghost town, Crystal City.  Jan was a skilled gamer with a head for numbers and creative mischief.

 

The Fraser girls were fun and tough.  They were also very smart, which made them a challenge. Their mother, Virginia Fraser, was a hoot, and that too made them all a formidable team.

 

Jan embodied the notion that girls and boys were equal, assuming the boys could keep up. She did everything with enthusiasm and wit and raw power!. 

 

In the summertime Crystal of our youth, all matters of importance were divided by gender: girls versus boys, which almost always disfavored boys by virtue of both numbers and pure political power.  Women ran the place! 

 

Most often this divide between the sexes played itself out dramatically in water fights, a ritual in warm weather that could erupt several times in a single day, fed as it was by an endless supply of very cold water and the siren call of a water ditch down one or both sides of Crystal’s Main street.  In early years the southern ditch was abandoned, leaving only the northern branch, though it was plentiful enough for any major skirmish.

 

Jan excelled at water fights and was a ringleader, contriving new and devilish attacks.  Among her most ingenious initiating maneuvers was pouring a bucket of water onto an opponent still resting in bed by raising it up over the upstairs dividing walls then extant in the original Crystal Hotel owned by Dorothy Tidwell, Helen and Edna’s youngest sister.  The Crystal Hotel was a hotbed of mischievous and beguiling behavior.

 

Jan was also the object of considerable male attention because she presented a genuine physical challenge.  With speed, agility, organizational skills, a devoted following of female defenders, she was incredibly difficult to wrestle into the ditch and it required a concerted effort by at least one and often far more than two strong male opponents.  These male attempts upon the citadel were common, but success far less so. 

 

Jan was a good writer, a delightful communicator who wrote as she spoke, with details and a cadence that made you laugh.  I kept many of her letters.

 

Though Maxine Fowler died of cancer in August 1973, while she was alive, she was the center of Crystal life for many, and her memory remains strong in those who knew her during those wonderful times.  Maxine was plain fun and she knew how to let others have enjoyment and excitement, encouraging exploration of the dangerous Crystal environs, playing games, water fighting with abandon, and teasing.

 

Jan loved Maxine.  Maxine loved Jan.  Jan also loved the intertwined mixture that was Maxine and Crystal; a fact that we repeatedly shared on those many occasions when the history and fate of Crystal was front and center.  The place and the experience were centered on the approach to life embodied in Maxine Fowler that was carried on by Jan Fraser throughout her life.

 

Maxine Fowler was my parent-in-lieu while I was in Colorado, and Jan would come to be Maxine’s able assistant in the vitally necessary process of repairing and refurbishing the Crystal cabins.  Jan poured her soul into Crystal, loved it and always wanted to be a part of it.

 

On many occasions Jan fondly recalled the hard work and awful circumstances, belting out laughter with her characteristic enthusiasm as she recounted emptying the filthy manure laden cabin attics, sawing or cutting wood, and making repairs. Needless to say, when mining cabins sit idle for decades and shelter overwintering mammals, a collection of materials wait stubbornly to be cleared out, and Jan did what it took to get the job done. Those who now live comfortably in those cabins should thank her for her Aegean Stable-like efforts.

 

Jan cared and looked out for people. One Saturday evening during the summer of 1992, Jan, my future wife, Pepper and I drove to the Snow Bridge near the Devil’s Punchbowl on the road to Schofield Pass.  We sought a load of snow to make traditional hand-cranked ice cream.  As we reached the upper stretch before the Snow Bridge we encountered three mountain bikers, two men and a woman.  The woman had fallen and injured her leg, causing her to limply walk her bike. It was nearing dark.

 

On the return trip, Jan suggested that we rescue the woman, who had fallen again due to her first injury.  We piled her in and delivered her to Crystal, inviting all three to camp near town and come participate in the traditional evening festivities and ice cream manufacture in Maxine’s cabin. 

 

It was during that party that the rescued trio sheepishly confessed deep embarrassment at being helped.  Everyone knew it was no shame, as the Crystal environment is extremely harsh.

 

“But you don’t understand,” they explained,  “we work as Search and Rescue in Las Vegas.”  True to form, Jan helped rescue the rescuers.

 

Now we are all left with our many memories of Jan to keep and guide us.  A model of courage and humor unto the end, she is beloved and will be deeply missed.