She had a beautiful smile.

That is what people who knew Crystal Barrett, known to most as Kristi, would say about her. And there was a genuine quality about it which made people feel comfortable around her.

“She always entered the door with a big smile,” her mother, Marilyn Pothier, said.

And that smile made everything OK, Pothier said.

The Coquille woman’s death in a bizarre accident that also seriously injured her 14-year-old son, Tanner, has stunned her friends and relatives and the community in which she spent all of her life. On Saturday, a tree fell on Barrett’s Toyota 4-Runner as she was driving west on state Highway 42 just west of Coquille, crushing the front of the vehicle. An ambulance crew took her to Bay Area Hospital, but she died of her injuries.

The circumstances of the accident are impossible to understand, Pothier said.

“She has driven that road so many times,” she said. “It’s not right.”

She will be missed by many, but perhaps she will be missed most by her son, Tanner.

He still is recovering in Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, where he was transferred after being stabilized at Bay Area Hospital.

“They had a very close relationship,” Pothier said. “They were inseparable.”

Barrett attended all Tanner’s school and sports activities, even requesting time off work to watch her son. Tanner, who will be a freshman next year at Coquille High School, participated in track, football, basketball and played drums.

Doctors were worried about a hematoma, or collection of blood, in Tanner’s brain that could require surgery. That’s why they transferred him to Eugene, Pothier said.

On Wednesday, surgeons noticed the hematoma getting larger and decided to do surgery to repair a skull fracture causing the bleeding and drain off the blood. Pothier said the surgeons offered a bit of good news. The hematoma was not in his brain, but between the membrane and his skull. It won’t cause brain damage. By Wednesday evening, Tanner was recovering in the ICU.

He suffered other injuries when the tree struck the SUV, including a cracked vertebra and fractured eye socket, but his doctors believe those wounds will heal.

Pothier said the family will not hold a memorial service for Barrett until Tanner is able to attend.

“I don’t know what he will do at his mom’s service,” she said. “But he’s got to have that opportunity.”

Many who knew Barrett would also describe her as a devoted mother.

“Tanner was her world,” said Carrie O’Bryan, who worked with Barrett at Woodland Dental Clinic in North Bend.

Barrett was determined to see her son pursue his education, and it showed. Coquille Valley Middle School Principal Mark Nortness said she was one of the most involved parents in the school.

“She tended to take more interest than most in working with teachers to improve Tanner’s grades.”

Middle school students need a little more encouragement and Barrett was always there for her son, he said.

“She certainly held him to a standard she set, which was a pretty high standard,” Nortness said.

She had a similar caring for friends and family, too.

“She knew half the county,” Darin O’Bryan said.

Barrett was O’Bryan’s dental assistant at his clinic. She had worked there for almost a year.

O’Bryan said Barrett had been a dental assistant for years and knew how to make patients feel comfortable.

He said people have canceled appointments because, like him, they don’t feel right about coming in without her there.