Elizabeth Marie Young was born on June 20th, 2001 in Newport Beach California to Harry and Tiffani Young. She was the first of three children. She has two siblings, Harry and Catherine. She grew up in Westminster California and we lived there until we moved to Castle Rock Colorado in 2013. She went to her heavenly home to be with her Lord on June 11th 2020.
To provide a little context to Elizabeth’s life, I offer this biography. It will explain to some extent who she was, what she believed and how she loved people. Elizabeth as our first child was both a joy and a challenge from early in her life. She loved her mother and father, she loved her grandmothers, she would scowl at her grandfather, and everybody else got an unhappy response from her. She softened a bit as she grew. By the age of one she literally had a one-hundred word vocabulary. Once she started talking, it was hard to get her to stop. As she grew, she warmed up to all of our family and friends, but around people she didn’t know and at school she was very shy and introverted. At the age of two, she knew who the Mercury 7 were, she wanted to be an astronaut, a ballerina and an engineer. We read the Bible to all of our children and Elizabeth enjoyed learning the Bible. Even from a very young age, she was very black and white about right and wrong and about almost everything. When she was 4 years old, she prayed to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She fully understood even at that age what she was doing. She never wavered from that belief. She started in ballet at this young age and loved performing. She continued in ballet until her junior year in high school. At the age of 6 she started martial arts training at Hwarangdo Academy in Huntington Beach and by the age of 11 she obtained her black belt.
When she got to school age, she attended Huntington Christian School until the middle of sixth grade. She had a few friends (who were really friends) but she always had an insecurity about her friendships. I think this contributed to how her current friends described her as “She never knew a stranger” because she showed no bias and would befriend anyone. In third grade, she was diagnosed with ADHD. That explained some of her difficulties with friendships and some of the difficulties staying on task. Elizabeth was an exceptionally smart child, but was having some issues staying organized and completing school work. With the addition of some medication, she managed to do well in school and friendships became a little easier. She loved going to Church at First Christian Church in Huntington Beach and School at Huntington Christian School. In 2013, we moved to Castle Rock Colorado. We started attending Southeast Christian Church and Southeast Christian School in Parker Colorado. When Southeast did a church plant in Castle Rock, it changed things up for us. After that school year Tiffani began home schooling Elizabeth and our children with the help of the cottage school in Monument, and our friend Brandy who encouraged and helped with the home schooling. During that time Front Range Christian Church was planted in Castle Rock and we became involved and loved the people at the church. Elizabeth loved serving at church and enjoyed being a part of the youth group. Even then, Elizabeth had some challenges with friendships. After a few years at Front Range, the Lord moved us to Calvary Castle Rock where Elizabeth found a good home in the youth group where she grew in faith and grew in many friendships. Her confidence showed and she had a good impact on the fellowship. The youth group took a trip to the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky which really bound the group together. Finally, she felt confident in her friendships. Elizabeth really became strong in her rejection of any thought that life on earth could be a cosmic accident. For High School, Elizabeth went to Douglas County High School. With her strong faith and character, we were pretty confident she could deal with the challenges of public high school. She handled it well. In high school, she had adventure class where she had learned some technical rock climbing and strength training skills. She also made some really good friends who remain good friends to today. She didn’t date and didn’t have any boyfriend in high school, much to the chagrin of some, but she had some really good, faithful guy friends and a few good girl friends. She enjoyed teaching and tutoring math and physics where she helped some of her friends, some of her teachers, and some of her cousins in California. During the summer of her junior year, Elizabeth was invited by some friends to go swing dancing at Mercury Café in Denver. She immediately fell in love with swing dancing. She and her friends from church and school would go dancing on Sunday Nights and stay out late having fun. While she was in high school, she worked as a life guard at Great Wolf Lodge, then she worked with her friend Aliah at Home Goods. After that she worked at Chick-fil-a with several friends from church and continued working there while in college. She was excited for graduation and she was excited to be going to college. Prior to entering college, She and many from the youth group attended Summit in Colorado Springs to get a couple weeks of intensive training in Christian apologetics to prepare her for secular world view, and the Marxist and postmodernist indoctrination that she would be exposed to at the university. She loved the apologetics and this time cemented her friendships and relationships further. She also became good at foosball while there.
Elizabeth was accepted at UCCS in the Mechanical Engineering program. She was excited to be there and to be living on campus, but close enough to home, church and work. Much to our dismay, her first dating relationship started almost immediately after moving into the dormitory at UCCS. That relationship didn’t last long and didn’t end well, but it definitely was a learning experience. She was hurt. As the year progressed, she made other friends among her engineering peers, got into working out at the rec center, climbing at the rock wall, ice skating with friends, and hiking and rock climbing with friends. During the last several months, she became very dedicated to rock climbing with her friends. She loved it. When Covid-19 restrictions hit in March, she was sad because it cut into her ability to spend time with her church friends, school friends and rock climbing friends. It shut down going to church. She had to move home. Swing dancing at Mercury Café was gone. But She did take some opportunities to go hiking and climbing. She completed the first year of engineering and was looking forward to next year. She was getting close to Conner one of the guys she climbed with. On many occasions, they spent hours together talking. Elizabeth, Conner and a couple other friends went climbing on the June 10th when tragedy struck. Elizabeth was harnessed in. As she went over the edge from the top, the rope broke and she fell about 80 feet to impact the ground. Her injuries were extensive. Her body was broken. She was in a lot of pain. She was conscious and coherent. It took about 30 minutes for the EMT’s to reach her. She was airlifted to the hospital in Colorado Springs where they worked feverishly to fix her. Her Aunt, Uncle and cousin made it to the hospital first. Tiffani and I were able to go into the emergency room. We were able to speak to her and she was able to speak to us. We could tell by her injuries and the look in her eyes that it was very serious and potentially fatal. We and many other friends and family prayed long into the night for her. God was merciful and took her home. If she had survived, her recovery and rehabilitation would have been very long, very hard, very painful and she likely would have been impaired.
This was a brief description of the life of Elizabeth Young. What also needs to be said is that she was a true friend to so many. She was a light and a witness of her faith in Jesus. While she wasn’t perfect, she was fearless in standing up for and doing what is right. She would always help anyone in need. She faithfully prayed for her friends and family who she loved, both those who are Christians and those who are not. It was her deepest desire to know that the people she loved would come to know Jesus and have eternal life so that she would have them in her life forever.
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