Shirley Ruby Willoughby-Benton

Her name started out as Crystal Diana Bennington, when she was born (the day after me).  She was the product of an affair at The Bennington Distribution Center, a couple hours away from here.  (Yes, a VP went after one of the secretaries.)  As her birth father was a Bennington, it was decided that the baby would stay in the family.  Her adoptive father, the nephew of the birth father, volunteered.  His wife jumped at the chance to raise a Bennington without giving birth to one.  (She was quite vain.)  Crystal’s namesake was her Great Aunt Crystal Shirley Bennington  Her birth mother changed her name and took off for Vegas two weeks after Crystal’s birth.  Nothing is known of her since then.

Crystal was a trophy kid.  As often happens to real trophies, she got left alone and neglected until it was time to be shown off.  The elder Crystal took an interest in her namesake, which was the only real attention she got from the adults in the family.  She knew she was adopted, and her parents made sure she should feel grateful they took her in.  Thankfully, her nannies became surrogate mothers as she was growing up.  

Crystal was smart, so getting good grades was easy.  She wasn’t spoiled (that would have taken effort on behalf of her parents). Starting when she was in 7th grade, she was allowed to spend money on whatever she wanted, as long as she kept it under 4 figures.  She went to school with many people who had the same kind of upbringing.  By that age, school was the only place many of them got any sort of adult attention.  Being a “troublemaker” would bring negative attention from their parents (which was worse than neglect), so everyone was well-behaved.  This meant that all of the typical school drama was kept secret and separate from school.  After school, they mostly took over the mall a half mile away from school.  That’s where the gossiping and the arguments happened.  That’s where friends were made and lost, notes were passed around, and where inherently good kids got very bad ideas from the kids who went to other schools.

Crystal wasn’t popular, but she was well-known.  Bennington Distribution was one of the major employers in the area.  People pretty much left her alone. . . until she met Claudia, the quintessential “innocent looking bad girl.”  Claudia’s Dad was the only non-Bennington VP.  They met when Crystal started High School.  Claudia was a junior and decided that would be the year she would see if she could manipulate a girl the same way she’d manipulated the string of boyfriend she’d had since junior high.  That was also the year Claudia decided to start dealing.  Poor Crystal got dumped halfway through her sophomore year when Claudia got busted.  Claudia shared her manipulation tricks with her cousin Junior.  He got Crystal to start dating him.  His style of emotional abuse was different than Claudia’s, so she didn’t think anything was amiss for two years.

The elder Crystal retired right after her namesake got dumped. The two of them started spending more and more time together.  After her junior year, Crystal moved out of her parent’s house and into her namesake’s house.  It was then she learned that Crystal Shirley Bennington was known to some of her friends as Ruby Benton.   These friends were an eccentric bunch that she only saw twice.   The elder Crystal told her namesake that Ruby Benton was an alias she used to keep her personal life secret from her family.  Her decision to stay a spinster was a controversial one, but she was the eldest Bennington alive, so nobody said a bad word about her in public.

The elder Crystal got sick during the younger’s senior year and died right after the younger Crystal turned 18.  The family funeral was elaborate and utterly boring.  Crystal got a nice inheritance, but also had to leave the family home right after graduation because her birth father inherited the house. 

At Ruby Benton’s memorial, held two days before Crystal’s graduation, she met a man named Rael Willoughby (yes, the one listed under my Godparent’s family.  I’ll explain their relationship when I tell Rael’s story).  Ruby Benton had a relationship with both of Rael’s parents in the early 60’s and was around for the first few years of Rael’s life.  They remained close for many years.  They died in a car accident right after Ruby died.  Rael was a baker’s dozen years older than Crystal, but they decided to keep in touch.  They were both mourning the same mother figure, after all.   

The night before she graduated high school, Crystal had a very vivid dream.  It was 15 years into the future, and Shirley was fighting with Junior as she was preparing to leave him and their two children behind in search of happiness.  She greatly regretted choosing to marry Junior and having two kids. Junior begged, pleaded, and yelled as Crystal packed. The prenup made it possible for Crystal to hold on to her personal wealth and only pay minimal child support.  She was fine for helping pay for the children she regretted having.  Junior kept pleading, but she stood her ground.  She loaded up her car and drove off.  Then Crystal woke up and realized it was just a dream.  It solidified her belief that she needed to break up with Junior, go away to college, and never look back.  

When Junior proposed in front of her homeroom right before the ceremony, Crystal said no immediately.  He was humiliated and violated her later that night.  Crystal, who had been told by her adoptive parents right after the ceremony that she was a fool to refuse to marry into Junior’s family, knew she was on her own.  She got a hotel room and called Rael.  Within 3 days, she had moved in with him and had all of her stuff in his garage.  He gave her a place to heal and figure out what to do next.  Rael found out through my Godparents that Miles and I were going to one of the schools she was accepted at.  He encouraged her to go there, as she’d have “family” to look after her.  He helped her to change her name to Shirley Ruby Benton, something she’d wanted to do since her namesake died.

By the end of the summer, Rael and Shirley were in love.  They were both mindful of the age difference, and agreed that a committed relationship could wait until after Shirley finished college.  

Miles and I helped Rael move Shirley move into her dorm.  Miles and Shirley hit it off quite well.  While Shirley and I flirted a little, dating her was out of the question if she loved Rael, who is like an uncle to me.  Shirley started dating Miles around Thanksgiving that year, and I was also dating Miles by Christmas.  Shirley and I became best friends, and never had an issue with dating the same man.  We very briefly dated another man named Barrett, but I’ll get into that when I talk about Barrett.

Shirley and Rael married when she was 25.  It ended with his death when she was 39.    Their marriage is a whole story in itself.  

Shirley ended up buying my parternal grandparent’s house after my Grandpa died a few years ago.  I will tell that story.