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Friends and family mourn Meghan

By Amanda Factor

Friends and family gathered this week to remember Ryerson student Meghan Savage.

Savage, a third-year early childhood education student, died suddenly on September 18 of a ruptured spleen.

At her memorial service on Sunday, which was held in the Lawrence Park area, mourners wept for the life that had been cut short, while also remembering all the happy moments they spent with her.

During a quiet moment in the service, people who had been especially close to Meghan said a few words.

Her boyfriend, Joe Miehm, told those attending about the time Meghan had locked him out of his room. When she eventually let him back in, she had lit every candle in the room. She then took his Irish wedding band off his right hand and placed it on his left upside-down, signifying engagement.

“It amazed me how sweet and creative that was,” he said.

Jess Hunter, Meghan’s friend and classmate, remembers her as someone who didn’t care for class but loved the job placements and working with children. “She loved all children. It didn’t matter what age they were,” said Hunter.

Hunter and Megan met on the first day of university when they sat beside each other and realized they had the exact same schedule. She remembers spending hours downing coffee and beer and window shopping at the Eaton Centre.

After Meghan’s engagement, Hunter remembers she came to school grinning from ear to ear.

Meghan was extremely excited, talking about the dress she wanted, and the engagement ring she wanted — one with diamonds and white gold.

Hunter said the memory most engraved in her mind is of the last time she saw Meghan on the Tuesday before her death, when she accompanied Meghan to the clinic. “She just looked so bad, like she was getting the flu.”

The two had plans to open a daycare in Nanaimo, B.C. after graduation.

Meghan leaves behind her parents, Susan and Theunes, and her older brother Brendon. A bursary at Ryerson will be set up in her memory.

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