8-Year-Old’s Mom Receives Letter from Her After She Died in Camp Mystic Flooding: ‘I’m Just So Grateful’ 

Blakely McCrory, just 8 years old, was one of the young lives lost during the devastating Fourth of July floods that tore through Camp Mystic, a beloved Christian summer camp nestled in Texas Hill Country along the Guadalupe River. For her mother, Lindsey McLeod McCrory, the tragedy has been nearly unbearable—but in the wake of unimaginable loss, a simple handwritten letter from her daughter has become a treasured final gift.

“This was Blakely’s first year at Camp Mystic,” Lindsey tells PEOPLE, adding that her daughter was the third generation in their family to attend. “She was so excited—just thrilled to be there. To her, it was like the biggest sleepover in the world.”

Blakely, an outdoors-loving, bright spirit, eagerly looked forward to four weeks of swimming, fishing, horseback riding, and bonding with 11 other girls in her cabin. “Everything she loved was there,” Lindsey says.

So when Lindsey, who was vacationing in Europe with her sister, first heard there was flooding at the camp, she wasn’t initially alarmed. “I thought, ‘Oh, rainy day—they’re probably inside playing board games and laughing,’” she remembers. “That’s what it was like when I was there during a flood in the ’80s.”

But the reality was far more grim. A few hours later, a phone call from a friend delivered crushing news: children were missing. Lindsey quickly scanned her voicemail and found a message from the camp confirming Blakely was unaccounted for. “I was shaking,” she says.

She and her sister immediately booked a flight home. While they traveled back to Texas, Blakely’s older half-brother Brady and his mom visited a nearby evacuation center, hoping for good news. None came.

Still, Lindsey clung to hope. “I kept thinking—maybe she and a counselor are somewhere dry. Maybe they’re just lost,” she says quietly. “Of course, you want to believe that.”

But on Monday night, Lindsey got the call. Blakely had been found. She was gone.

Surrounded by family, Lindsey took the call with an unshakable calm. “It was closure,” she says. “As painful as it was, I knew she wasn’t missing anymore. I knew she was safe—in heaven, with her dad.”

Blakely’s father, Blake McCrory, passed away in March after a short battle with cancer. He was 59. Just weeks later, Lindsey’s brother died—also 59. Through it all, Lindsey says Blakely remained resilient and joyful.

“She was a live wire,” Lindsey says. “She was a prankster, always laughing. She once put our pet turtle in my purse as a joke. That’s the kind of kid she was.”

Even during the flood, Blakely stayed strong. A cabin counselor later told Lindsey that Blakely helped calm the other girls. “She encouraged them not to be afraid,” her mother shares with quiet pride.

In the days after the tragedy, among the belongings recovered from Blakely’s cabin was a letter she had written home. It read: “Dear Mom, How are you? I am good.” She described camp as “amazing” and said she was loving tennis and horseback riding.

Reading her daughter’s words now brings Lindsey peace. “That letter is so special,” she says. “It confirms that she was having the best time of her life.”

Lindsey says she is determined to honor Blakely’s spirit. “I want to be the kind of mom who keeps her close—who doesn’t hide her pictures away. I talk to her. I feel her near me. I know she’s watching me.”

She and her son Brady are now focused on healing together. “It’s hard without her and without my husband,” Lindsey admits. “But our faith reassures us—she’s in heaven. She’s okay.”

And Lindsey holds onto one last comforting thought: “We believe it happened quickly. She didn’t suffer. I imagine her surrounded by those other campers and counselors who passed, in a beautiful, peaceful place.”

“Blakely is looking down on us,” she says. “And we’re going to keep her light alive.”