Megan was here!!
Megan grew up a tomboy, but seemed to transform into a butterfly overnight. She loved fishing, four-wheeling and makeup. Once she fell asleep in a mimosa tree, sleeping soundly for 30 minutes until her mother, afraid she’d fall out, woke her up.
Like a mermaid, Megan loved being in water. Fearless, she started water skiing at just three years old. After her dad died, she and her mother went to Sea World, where she quizzed the staff relentlessly about what it took to become a marine biologist.
Megan was smart, loved art, sports, and could play any musical instrument she picked up. She earned double bachelors of science degrees in Business Administration and Management Information Systems from East Central University, and worked in Information Technology. But being a mom was the role she loved most.
“The light came on in her eyes the moment her sons were born,” her mother, Janice said. Mason and Gavin were her world. Megan built a fort for them, letting then five-year-old Mason help, and she stayed up all night to finish it. She loved her boys, and she loved God and knew his path. She had a huge heart, and saw the best traits in everyone.
Addiction changed Megan from an outgoing person to someone who was ashamed and hid. She lost custody of her sons because of it, and her greatest goal was to get them back. She struggled to meet the Department of Human Services requirements, often taking too much of her prescribed medications, or quitting them all together. Megan told her mother if she could look inside her brain, it would scare her to death.
Megan kept trying to find a path to recovery. She died in a halfway house in Muskogee. The medical examiner said the cause was an accidental interaction of medications. Her mother misses talking with her, holding her and being with her sons.
“She had beat it!” Janice said. “Every day she amazed me or angered me …..my daughter was my friend, my precious girl that I could not fix. Nothing is the same, nor will it ever be.”
Megan’s mother, Janice Durham, provided the information for this narrative.
April 8, 1986–May 27, 2023-Age 37
Portrait Artist: Shawn Faust
Narrative Writer: Lynne Mixson
