Megan’s Story

Terry Langley wasn’t just my mom, she was my best friend in the entire world. We did absolutely everything together and most of the time I would rather hangout with her than my friends. In October of 2013 my mom started to not feel well, she hated going to the doctors and it took some convincing between my dad and I to get her to go. I went to the appointment with her and her doctor sent her to get an ultra sound done, we left the doctors office and went right to get the test done. We lived in a rural area in New Jersey but it was only 20 minutes from the office to our house. We pulled into the drive away and my mom’s cellphone started to ring, she didn’t even finish driving down the lane before she answered it. Just like that, within those 20 minutes it took for us to get home, her doctor was already calling her to tell her that she had a lesion on her liver. 

I will never forget the way that I felt when my mom said those words, “I have a lesion on my liver.” I was only 17, my birthday was next month, it was my senior year of high school, my mom had to be okay. With one phone call, just like that my life became flipped upside down and there was not one thing I could do about it. My heart was shattered and I did as much research on the topic as possible, there were two possibilities. It would either be benign or it would be cancerous. The next step was for my mom to go into the hospital to get a biopsy done.

By December, my mom started to grow weaker, she started to lose weight, and she was having trouble breathing. My Dad and I were trying to keep her in good spirits with Christmas being around the corner so we decided as a family we would go do some Christmas shopping. We were all sitting in the car when my mom’s phone started to ring, it was her doctor calling with her biopsy results. Those three words you never want to hear were said, “You have cancer.”  The drive home was silent except for the tears that were being shed.

We found out that my mom had fluid on her lungs and that’s what was causing her to have trouble breathing. The plan was to get the fluid off of her lungs before she could start chemotherapy. Unfortunately, that day would never come. On January 31st, 2014 at 4:30am my mom passed away with myself, my dad, and her best friend by her side. That is when we found out that the cancer had spread all through out her body and it was too quick to catch.

I was 18, a senior in high school and my mom passed away without seeing me go to Disney World for my senior trip, go to prom, and graduate high school. I am now 27 and she has physically missed out on so many other things that have happened in my life but I know that her spirit has been with me every step of the way.

In 2018, I was tired of feeling alone, I didn’t know of anyone who had lost their mother at the age of 18. I tried various Facebook groups but none of them fit because a lot of the women had their mothers a lot longer than I did. I decided to do something about it and I created my own Facebook group called ‘Young Motherless Daughters’ that would be for women 28 and younger. Since then, I have met and connected with over 1400 women. I finally have others to relate to and who understand what I’m going through. This journey is one unlike any other and one that I never thought I would go through, but it helps when you have amazing girls/women by your side who understand.

There is not one day that goes by where I do not think of my mom or miss her. Next year will mark 10 years without her and it still seems like this all happened just yesterday while being the longest time of my life. The woman I am today is because of my mom, and everything I do is in honor of her. I will end with this, please know you are not alone during the difficult journey of losing your mom. To my mom, I love you more than anything in the world.