When Louise Crowe fell and broke her hip five years ago, doctors told her she’d never walk again.
Dr. Allen Ballar, a Gwinnett County dentist, knew differently.
“I looked at the doctor and thought, ‘You don’t know my mother-in-law,’” he said. “She was very determined to walk again, and she did.”
Ballar, who lives in Peachtree Corners, said he told Crowe during her physical therapy that the measure of her strength would be in whether or not she could get up from a seated position and walk.
“From that point on, she made it a point to rise from her chair, unassisted, and take those steps to her walker,” he said. “She was really quite something.”
Louise K. Crowe, of Lawrenceville, died Thursday of complications from another fall. She was 99.
A funeral was held Saturday at A. S. Turner Funeral Home, Decatur, which was also in charge of arrangements, followed by burial at Floral Hills Cemetery Tucker.
Crowe was born in Bogart, just west of Athens. She moved to metro Atlanta with her husband, Felton V. Crowe, after they married. The couple reared two children and was married for 63 years when he died in 1998.
As Crowe aged, she made sure to exercise her mind, said her daughter, Kathy Ballar.
“About 15 years ago, we asked her if she wanted a computer, and at first she said no, but she changed her mind,” her daughter said. “She started playing games, and it just continued from there.”
Crowe created greeting cards, sent email and had a Facebook account.
“She would email and follow my friends,” Ballar said, with a laugh.
The only time she complained about the computer was when it didn’t work as quickly as she wanted, said her son, John Crowe Sr., of Amelia Island, Fla.
“Kathy and Allen bought her a Kindle, because she wanted to read, but then she discovered people were using iPads, and they had color, and she wanted one of those,” her son said. “And it took her approximately 15 minutes to learn how to use that.”
Louise Crowe caught on quick and opened iTunes, Amazon and Netflix accounts, family members said.
“She didn’t have a lot of preconceived notions about things,” said her grandson, Chris Ballar. “If I told her I had something to show her, or a new way to do something, she wanted to see it. She wanted to learn it.”
“She really knew how to roll with the punches,” her daughter said. “And I think that is one of the reasons she lived so long.”
In addition to her children and grandson, Crowe is survived by three additional grandchildren and a number of great-grandchildren.
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