• Pot smokers aren't violent. 'Everything was an adventure': Friends

    From daily.liberal@gazette.com@1:124/5013 to All on Thu Jan 31 19:20:11 2019
    From: "Daily Liberal" <daily.liberal@gazette.com>
    Subject: Pot smokers aren't violent. 'Everything was an adventure': Friends
    remember free spirited, devoted Boulder mother Ashley Mead
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    In her Facebook pictures, Ashley Mead usually had three things
    on her: A gigantic smile, her unique fashion sense and her 1-
    year-old daughter, Winter.

    "She was just such an individual," said her friend, Morgan
    Jeknavorian. "She always had just such an amazing smile. And
    she'd wear crazy tie-dyed legging and shirts with sharks and
    Godzilla and birds on them.

    "And she was the best mother I've ever met. She's motivation for
    how I want to be when I have a kid."

    Friends and family are mourning the 25-year-old mother after
    police revealed Friday that she was likely killed in Boulder
    last weekend. Her ex-boyfriend and the father of her child, Adam
    Densmore, has been charged with first-degree murder.

    Mead grew up in Warren, a city of about 10,000 in northwest
    Pennsylvania.

    "There's no words to describe what that girl had," said Amelia
    Perry, who met Mead about 11 years ago in Pennsylvania. "That
    girl lived more than anyone else I know."

    "She was an old soul," Perry added. "Ashley could tell stories.
    She was so full of life. Everything was an adventure."

    The next adventure for Mead was school, and she moved to
    Shreveport, La., to attend Centenary College of Louisiana before
    transferring to LSU-Shreveport. Jeknavorian met her while the
    two were working at the same restaurant, and lived together for
    a time.

    Mead would often walk into Jeknavorian's closet and find an
    outfit Jeknavorian hadn't worn because it was too outlandish,
    then add it to the eccentric wardrobe she paired with her
    trademark "big silly glasses."

    "She would show up in my dress and just be rocking it,"
    Jeknavorian said. "She could never be caught wearing something
    anybody else would wear."

    Mead got into a bad car accident while studying, and the time
    off from school and the mounting bills prevented Mead from
    finishing her studies.

    "She was so smart," Perry said. "But I think she kind of wanted
    to do everything, and didn't know what she wanted to do at the
    same time."

    'I've never seen a better mom'

    While studying in Louisiana, Mead met Densmore — a U.S. Army
    veteran from Haughton, La. — and the two began what friends
    described as a tumultuous and emotionally abusive relationship.

    "I never cared for Adam, and I don't think any of her friends
    did," Jeknavorian said.

    She said she never witnessed or heard about any physical
    violence, but said he was "manipulative," and that Mead was not
    confident about herself around him.

    "She was always miserable with Adam," Jeknavorian said. "He tore
    her down mentally a lot."

    The two broke up, and Densmore moved away to Colorado to go to
    chef school, which is when Mead found out she was going to have
    a baby girl.

    "She was so scared when she was pregnant," Perry said. "She came
    home and we talked about it, and she decided she was going to
    move to Colorado. Even if she wasn't going to be with
    (Densmore), she wanted to be there so her daughter could have a
    father."

    But even if Mead was scared about having a daughter, Jeknavorian
    said that the birth of Winter Daisy Mead was one of the best
    things to happen to her.

    "She was just so proud of that baby," Jeknavorian said. "You
    could see it in her eyes. It was just so amazing to see that
    smile on her."

    Jeknavorian said Mead's free spirit carried over to her child-
    rearing philosophy.

    "Winter would be sitting there in the dirt with a leaf in her
    mouth, and (Mead) would just be giggling," Jeknavorian said.

    But that didn't mean Mead was not a fiercely protective and
    doting mother.

    "I'd like to think I am a good mom, but I've never seen a better
    mom than Ashley," Perry said. "She literally wore that baby."

    And before you think that Perry misused the word 'literally,'
    Jeknavorian said the same thing.

    "She wore Winter," Jeknavorian said. "She had all these wraps
    that she used. That baby was always attached to her boob."

    So when news broke that the baby had been found with Densmore
    but that Mead was not with her, Jeknavorian broke down and cried
    in her car.

    "I knew, I knew she was gone," Jeknavorian said. "She would
    never let (Densmore) leave with that baby."

    'She was the happiest'

    Mead got a job as a preschool teacher's aide in Colorado after
    moving to Boulder. Most recently, Mead had been an intern
    teacher for the head start division of Boulder County Community
    Services since October, the agency announced in a news release
    on Friday evening.

    "Her bubbly personality, her radiant love for her baby girl and
    her zany clothing choices are a few of the hallmarks we will
    miss. She was a dreamer and goal setter with lots of love for
    all," said the release. "We are holding Ashley and her daughter,
    Winter Daisy, and their entire family in our hearts."

    Jeknavorian also said Mead had recently been seeing another man,
    since she and Densmore were raising Winter but were not dating.

    "She was really happy with him, and I think she was just getting
    her confidence back," Jeknavorian said. "I'm really happy that
    she met somebody who made her feel beautiful."

    But Jeknavorian also wonders if seeing Mead with another man may
    have made Densmore jealous.

    "Maybe that is what made him snap," she said.

    Perry never met Densmore personally, but said she also talked to
    Mead about him.

    "It was definitely strange," Perry said. "He seemed like a very
    hard person for her to communicate with. They weren't good for
    each other."

    As for Winter, Perry said she has been talking with child
    protective services and said the baby is with a temporary foster
    family in Oklahoma.

    "Winter is doing well," Perry said. "She's being taken care of."

    In the meantime, Perry has set up a fund for Winter, who is
    faced with growing up without a mother and possibly her father.
    But Perry said she hopes baby Winter grows up with the kind of
    love that Mead always showered her with, and it is why she is
    choosing to remember Mead's life and not her death.

    "She wanted every single moment of her child's life to be full
    of love," Perry said. "Anytime someone got down, Ashley would
    tell them to shut up and remember how much beautiful stuff there
    is in the world. She was the happiest. Every time she walked
    through the room, she would have a huge, beautiful smile that
    would never quit."

    John Bear contributed to this story.

    Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars

    Colorado is a left wing pacifist state. They won't do anything
    to this poor man.

    http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_30803286/everything- was-an-adventure-friends-remember-free-spirited
     
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