Where Are They Now?

Crystal Crawford Weidner was born in Dublin, and although she ended up transferring to McGregor before she graduated high school, she will always consider Dublin home.

Weidner graduated high school in 1998, and started college at McLennan Community College in McGregor. She transferred to Tarleton after two years, and moved closer to Stephenville to be near her classes.

“I lived with my aunt and uncle out at Longhorn Ranch, and took care of day-to-day stuff that the ranch hand couldn’t do,” she said. “They just gave me an allowance to live off.”

Weidner married her first husband in 2002, and left college before she graduated to move to Austin with him. There she worked as a live-in nanny for her husband’s niece.

When the job ended, she worked at a convenience store before she found a position at a nearby school as a teacher’s aide. “My mom was a teacher at the school, and they asked if there was anybody who could take on two special needs children,” she said.

The school hired her on her mother’s recommendation, and she worked with the two students until the end of the school year. This experience would help her find work later on.

After a couple of years in Austin, Weidner separated from her husband and found herself missing McGregor, so she moved back. She took a job at Walmart there in 2005.

Weidner started off as a cashier and worked her way up to being a front end manager in 2010. She made sure all the cashiers had breaks and lunches, worked in customer service, and made sure everything flowed smoothly.

“I got to meet a lot of different people,” she said, but the hours were strenuous. “I worked the night shift because I had two small children.”

She left the job after seven years for maternity leave when her youngest was born, and decided to quit for good. For the next couple of years, she balanced caring for her children with taking online classes for her associates degrees in applied science and arts.

In 2017, Weidner applied to work as a substitute teacher in McGregor, and also helped out with the early childhood intervention program, which bused special needs children from surrounding districts to one central campus.

Between subbing and working with the children in the program, Weidner was working nearly full time until the pandemic began and schools closed. Since then, she’s been staying at home with her three children, Lane Casiano, 18, Aidan Crawford, 15, and Jackson Weidner, 10.

She spends her days taking them to school and extracurricular activities and helping organize medical visits for her oldest, who struggles with mental health issues. “Learning how to raise a neurodivergent child [has been a challenge],” she said. “But he has a good support system and I have a good support system.”

Weidner and her family also find time for outside hobbies such as disc golf. This year the family bought their first show pig, Huck, so they are often at the barn taking care of him.

The family attends church at first Woodway Baptist Church in Waco, where they are active in outreach projects.

Throughout her life, Weidner’s family has been her greatest source of inspiration. Her mother and stepfather, Judy and Rodney Gromatzky, still live in Dublin. Weidner’s husband, Randall Weidner, is an architectural design and drafting teacher at Waco ISD.

Weidner’s advice to Dublin graduates is to enjoy their time in school, but also to study hard so that life can be easier later. “If you study and do a good job, life has a lot of openings,” she said. “You can go to college — or trade school since college isn’t for everyone. A lot of doors will open for you.”

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.