Miles for Megan

I hadn't known Megan for long before she passed away. She was my fiancé's little sister who had moved to Missouri shortly before he and I started dating. We talked a lot about his sister, and by the time I met her one month before she died, Megan and I did not feel like strangers.

Megan had battled Cystic Fibrosis (CF) all of her life. When she was six months old, she became very ill and had to be hospitalized. This was her first encounter with her diagnosis.

Megan became very ill in last June. She was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for nearly two weeks. Her doctor was afraid that she would go at any moment. She fought back, but she was never the same after. Megan knew she didn't have much time. My fiancé, his mother, and I flew to Missouri to help Megan get back to Georgia. She wanted to spend her last days home.

When I met Megan, she was on 3 liters of oxygen and quickly increasing. She was frail and tiny, yet there was toughness in her eyes. We hit it off. She laughed easily and made jokes, even about her condition and her imminent death. We helped her pack her last bag back home to Georgia. She was medically transported to a hospice near where she had grown up. She had many visitors, friends and family, surrounding her during her last few weeks. She died on August 14, 2011, exactly one month after her arrival home, with her mother watching over her as she took her last breath.

The thing that struck me the most at Megan's memorial was the running theme about Megan's generosity of spirit. Those who knew and loved Megan loved her for her trusting nature, for her constant willingness to forgive, for her ability to see the bright side and to live in the moment. She made friends easily. She loved people. She loved her many animals. She was mischeivious and funny and could get herself out of trouble as easily as she could get herself into it. And she never let CF keep her from living the life she wanted to live. I left that service thinking to myself how I wished I had met her sooner.

All of the proceeds for Miles for Megan will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Cystic Fibrosis – Reaching Out Foundation, two nonprofit organizations. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is committed to funding research to find a cure for CF. The Cystic Fibrosis – Reaching Out Foundation raises funds to help families affected by CF to pay for medications, nutritional supplements, electric bills, or any other needs in order to help patients stay healthy. Your donation is 100% tax deductible. Megan did not survive to see a cure for CF, but with your help, perhaps other young people can live to do so.

http://www.milesforcysticfibrosis.org/about.php?event=q42tsx960d

http://www.cff.org/

http://www.reachingoutfoundation.org/