09/08/2024
Morgan James Gallagher is gone one year ago today. Our family is still in disbelief. We have celebrated his wonderful life with two memorials. One at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago, and one at Left Hand Rhino in Denver. Over 1000 people came out to Show Mo Love. We were quite shocked by the outpouring of love, emotions, and affection from all the people he touched in a meaningful way. I wanted to share my eulogy from the Denver event on his birthday with all of you who couldn't be there but wished they could. This is from the loving heart of his mom......................................I want to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you for being here to celebrate Morgan James Gallagher. It is only appropriate we celebrate Morgan's life on his would-be 32nd Birthday. You all know as well as I that this is the only way Morgan would miss this party. He would want to be here. I think I could speak for many of us here, we miss him already. He took great pride in being the oldest of the four Gallagher children. He loved being the big brother and he was great in that role. As a mom, I heaped all the love I could from a very young age on all four kids. I taught them to always look at the bright side. That the glass was always half full. They were taught the importance of respect, loyalty, kindness, consideration, love, and the value of spending quality time with family and friends. Morgan was a lover, simply put. He was a lover of family, people, babies, music, good friends, great food, pretty girls, dancing, fishing and dogs to name a few. He loved with all his heart. Anyone here who had the love of Morgan knew it because he wore his heart on his sleeve. He expressed his feelings, his love, his opinion. He let you know how he felt. He showed it. His heart was huge! People ask me how am I doing? How am I getting along? How am I surviving in this new heartbreak world I find myself in? This is what I tell them. I am and always will be Morgan's mom. No matter where he is or where I am. My beautiful boy will live forever in my heart. I feel so lucky to have had Morgan in my life for 31 wonderful years. They were all great years with some cloudy, rainy Stormy days mixed in. He was a good son, and he really loved his mom! He was a good worker, thoughtful, and fun to be around. I taught him never to come to a dinner party empty-handed. So that is where the watermelons come in! That was his gift of choice knowing it's easy and delicious and it would be a hit! When we lost Morgan, almost everything in us and around us seemed to change at the moment of his death. We long for just a few more moments with him. We reflect on the happiness that Morgan brought into our lives. To have a rare and meaningful relationship we cherished, which is now gone, is a devastating loss. Grieving Morgan will eventually help us heal. When I feel the stunning blow of disbelief, I go to a place that makes me happy. I take the Rollerblades that Morgan gave me for Mother's Day last year to the lakefront and and skate until the shock dissipates. Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves that the reason we feel grief at the death of Morgan is because we loved him so much. The pieces of my broken heart, my broken world will slowly knit themselves back together. Not in the same way since Morgan's death, but in a way that will allow me to live in peace without suffering. I am banking all my good Morgan memories to share these stories of love, laughter and cherished memories with the next generation. I desperately want to remember certain aspects of Morgan like his devilishly handsome good looks, boisterous laughter, his rib-cracking bear hugs, his guitar playing, the music choices he turned us all on to, and how much he loved his siblings. I want to remember what he said and how he said it. I want to remember his sweet smile and his twinkling green eyes. I will remember all the helpful, thoughtful, loving, generous ways he made people like him and then love him. I will never regret any part of Morgan's life. I will recall his accomplishments and pleasures in vivid detail over and over again. You may even hear me talk to him aloud as if he were still alive because he is forever present in my heart. I have to learn to appreciate what we had together instead of regretting what we couldn't have any longer. I think about how short life is. The perspective of my life has been enlarged. I will use what I have learned from Morgan's death to enhance the quality of my own life. I will truly appreciate what I now have. Morgan's life has been played out, even though I wish it were not so. I now carry forward with me as his mom all that was wonderful, positive, loving and strong in our relationship. I will take it with me everywhere I go. I will help Terry, and my children Erin, Devin and Quinn realize the gift Morgan was to our family and how he enriched all their lives. I hope they realize that Morgan is all around them in everything they do and everywhere they go. He is in our house and in our hearts. The love you shared was a girt. A heavy load to bear now but carry it reminding yourself that you wouldn't want it any other way. The emotional pain you are living through represents the love that is the richest portion of your lives. I have lost a unique and loving relationship that cannot be duplicated. Now I look at other people from whom I receive love, and there are plenty of them, family and friends. I will see their love as valuable, which will contribute to my daily happiness. In conclusion, Morgan was a gift to us all. His love was a gift. His hugs, laughter music, storytelling, his kindness and smile were all part of this wonderful human being we all knew and loved as Morgan James Gallagher. We were lucky to have known him................ Books I have read that are helping me heal are PROOF OF HEAVEN, by Eben Alexander, M.D., NORMAL BROKEN by Kelly Cervantes, A TIME TO GRIEVE by Carol Staudacher
