Just before we set out to fly to Virginia, I got a call from my good friend Meghan that she was in the hospital with leukemia. I’ve known her for 12 years and, even though we haven’t lived near each since after high school, we kept in touch. Meghan would never let me go very long without talking to her. No more than a few days after that first phone call, we found out she died of complications.
We had been planning on going to Virginia that week to pick up the RV. The flight plan was to go through Boston. Due to more logistics than I could possibly list in this post, I had to take that flight and then hop on a train to get to New York in time for her wake. I ended up traveling for 24 hours but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
I am very glad that I went because the service that they had at the end of the wake was beautiful. I was feeling really guilty about the trip I was about to embark on after the best friend I ever had just died, but her family gave me a needed reminder of how excited Meghan was for me to go on this trip. I know that if Meghan were here, she wouldn’t want me to feel sorry for her just like she never wanted anyone to in life.
For those of you who don’t know her, she battled all of her life with a disease call xeroderma pigmentosum or xp for short. She wasn’t able to go out in sunlight because even the smallest exposure to it would cause a tumor to form. Even though she was really careful she still lived her life, going to regular school, college, and getting a job in a group home after that. Quite often she would be in the hospital getting tumors removed but it never caused her to shut herself off from the world and never come out of her house like some people might have.
I am going to miss her so much. She was one of those people that was always there for you. The kind of person that you wanted to do anything that would make them smile because their smile was so bright it could power cities. She was silly and serious in just the right ways and, in general, just made this world a better, brighter place. One of her favorite quotes was, “You can turn off the sun but I’m still gonna shine” by Jason Mraz. I think that it describes her and the way she lived her life beautifully.
I love you Meghan and I will remember you always!
Home Sweet Motorhome 