For six years, a local restaurateur and mother of four has been serving kindness and commitment to community with her Mexican dishes.

“Many of you may know Crystal Price as owner and operator of Crystal’s Mexican Restaurant,” said Lexie Parisi. “You may also know Crystal as wonderful humanitarian who rallies behind her community and customers when they need help.”

She has done several drawings auctioning off artwork to benefit families in need and she has given free hot meals to people outside her restaurant, whom she believes to be distraught or homeless.

Price opened her restaurant, located on Shafer Drive in Brodheadsville, in 2019. The menu includes tacos, enchiladas, burritos and salads.

Hospitalization in late March

“Everything happened so fast! One day I was literally making orders in the kitchen. The next day, everyone and everything was a big blur,” Price recalls.

Price was hospitalized at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Cedar Crest, fighting for her life and in need of a liver transplant.

On March 29, Parisi set up the GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/0f77479c) for Price to raise money to help with her medical costs.

“I am praying that any and all who read this understand the importance of paying kindness forward and I do know that Crystal needs that kindness she displays so often to others returned,” Parisi wrote on the page.

As of Wednesday morning, there were 107 donations amounting to $5,660 of the $15,000 goal.

Transplant received

Price has spent more than two weeks in the hospital.

“I woke up with a new liver and in so much pain that I hyperventilated,” she said via Messenger.

She was disoriented and couldn’t figure out how to turn her cellphone on, but she remembered her Nana Joan’s phone number, which she had memorized as a kid, and used the room’s landline to call her.

“Finally around two weeks, I could process how to open my phone and call my kids,” she said.

Price and her husband, Oscar, have four children: 18-year-old Franky, 16-year-old Eilia, 15-year-old Jesse and 18-month-old Reyna.

“My kids were in and out of school for two weeks while we figured out very important things,” Price said. “My kids came every day to see me.”

She also used her phone to post an update to the restaurant’s Facebook page on April 4.

“It’s Me Crystal!!! I’m so happy to be alive!! Yes I received my Liver thank God!! I’m still very weak though,” she wrote.