The most beautiful person: lost
Stunningly beautiful inside and out, Maylee was a bright, charming, and generous woman. Born in India, Maylee was 4’9” and 90 pounds of pure charisma that drew people to her. In elementary school, teachers called her “the little mother” because she instinctively comforted others. A teacher once told her that if there was a reward for social life, she would be a high honor student!
Maylee enjoyed an active social life, shopping, driving her sports car, and spending time with her dog, Ari, a white pit bull. She was deeply devoted to Ari, whom she raised from eight weeks old and fed with a fork. As a puppy, she carried her around in her purse, and all the store clerks knew May and Ari, as they made their rounds.
Maylee loved skiing, sledding, bike riding, and swimming as a child. Family trips to Bosebuck Mountain Camps in Maine were highlights, where the family hiked, kayaked, and watched loons and the Northern Lights. She enjoyed whale-watching trips in Cape Cod and loved Christmas, carefully choosing gifts for family and friends. Maylee also loved time working with her stepfather, John, in the woods, and was apprenticing in maple sugaring. She had enough inherited money after her father’s death that she didn’t need to work, though she did briefly serve as a barista.
In her late teens, Maylee developed mental illness, resulting in multiple personalities and dissociative disorder, which made her life chaotic and unpredictable. Shortly after taking oxycontin at a party, she became addicted, and the drive to get high dominated her life for sixteen years. Despite her struggles, she was generous and supportive, often helping others emotionally and financially, especially those who were at their “wits’ end.”
Maylee’s illness prevented her from developing a lasting relationship or pursuing her personal dreams. She struggled with hallucinations and paranoia in her final years and tragically died by suicide. “We will never be the same,” her mother, Star, stated. “It takes all my strength to stand up every day and be present.” Star misses the powerful joy of May’s company. “I always told her I love her more than life.” There is an emptiness in Star’s soul that no words can adequately describe.
A year before Maylee’s death, she traveled to Alaska with her mother. After being hospitalized in Anchorage for five days, she used all her strength to continue the trip. They visited Katmai National Park to see brown bears and salmon runs and spread her grandmother’s ashes in the stream. During that trip, Maylee bought an artistic plaque of the mountains and northern lights that says, “In a world of darkness, BE THE LIGHT.” It hangs in her childhood home.
Maylee’s mother, Starr Strong, provided the information for this narrative.
February 10, 1990-June 13-2024-Age 34
Portrait Artist: Shawn Faust
Narrative Writer: Barbara Francois
