Loss of special student leaves a void at Bangor High School

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The sudden death of any young person can cause the most profound grief and desolation among the loved ones and friends who are left behind.

But occasionally a truly special person dies too young, a unique individual with a spark so vital and distinct that it touched more lives than would seem possible in so few years.

On Monday, a day after 16-year-old Megan Elizabeth Walker fell to her death while hiking with friends along the cliffs at Seal Harbor, that familiar spark was hauntingly absent from the halls of Bangor High School.

“I have been here at the school for 20 years, and have seen changes caused by other tragedies, but this time the change was all-encompassing,” said Maureen Hodge, a guidance counselor. “The halls were so vacant and silent. It was a strange and eerie feeling, as if everyone knew and everyone was trying to figure some way to deal with it.”

School officials opened Peakes Auditorium for the students who needed time alone. A crisis team — a nurse, psychologist, staff members — was assembled quickly for counsel and comfort. Parents called regularly throughout the week to ask how the students, their children, were handling the loss of one of their best and brightest. Hodge’s office became a haven of solace for Megan’s several close friends who were unable, despite anyone’s best attempts, to sort out the emotional confusion that overwhelmed them since Sunday afternoon’s accident.

“There is an awful lot of hurt, and nobody knows quite what to do,” said Norris Nickerson, the school principal. “We feel so helpless.”

Academically, athletically, artistically, musically, Megan Walker pushed herself to extraordinary heights. She was, as one teacher said, “top notch in everything. Everyone is amazed how much she accomplished in her short life.”

Megan’s spirit was immense, said the people who knew her best, and her death has created a void that is equally large.

“It has been overwhelming as we come to realize just how many lives Megan touched,” said her father, Wayne Walker, who is the director of Children and Youth Services for the Diocesan Human Relations Services.

“Megan’s goal was to do everything at once, and to not miss a thing in life,” said her mother, Michelle Walker, a therapist with Community Health and Counseling Services in Bangor. “It was always a matter of being at three places at once. She was always exploring, looking for herself.”

Megan seemed incapable of getting anything but A’s. Her parents once jokingly bribed her with a favorite cake if she got a single B. Her 4.0 grade average earned her a place in the National Honor Society when she was only a sophomore.

“Everything was exciting to her,” said Louise Small, Megan’s math teacher in the gifted-and-talented program. “She loved to learn, not just about what she might want to be, but for the pure enjoyment of learning itself. Some kids are afraid to say they study, to be positive about everything. Not Megan.”

Megan was a member of the Bangor High field hockey team, the swim team, and was named to Girls All-State Swim Team. The pool at the Bangor YMCA was a second home, a place of daily challenges, laughter and friendship. With the Orono-Old Town YMCA team, Megan went on to compete in the National YMCA Swim Meet in Florida.

She was a member of the speech and math teams. She was a cellist, a pianist and a flutist, shifting from one instrument to another during a single night of performing with the high school band and orchestra. She was selected as a cellist with the All-State Orchestra and was principal cellist with the Central Maine Youth Orchestra and the Senior Orchestra of the American String Teachers Association Summer Conference.

Megan was in the Girl Scouts, too, an activity that she considered a private joy outside of her busy school life, her father said. As a Maine delegate to the Girl Scout Wider Opportunity Conference in Washington, D.C., she had her picture taken with Barbara Bush. She had only a final project to complete before receiving the Gold Award, the highest prize in scouting.

A budding environmentalist who was concerned with animal rights, Megan swore off the use of leather products and ate no meat. Her concern for human rights issues led her to join Amnesty International.

She dabbled in astrology, wrote introspective verse, and sometimes read as many as five or more mystery books in a week.

In her character and her appearance, Megan favored non-conformity. Standing apart from the group, her friends agreed, allowed her fertile mind the freedom it needed to blossom without constraint.

“She was tall, and had long red hair, and when you saw her in the hallways it seemed as if she could have stepped right out of Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s,” said one of the staff members at the school.

Phillip Emery, the boys swim coach, said that it was not unusual for Megan to appear in the halls wearing one green sneaker and one yellow sneaker. The matching pair, he said, could be found on the feet of her close friend, Colley Johnson.

“Megan always wanted to be different,” Colley said. “She wore braids sometimes, and each braid symbolized a different person or moment she remembered.”

Those special moments were often just playful breaks in her whirlwind of days: hiding in the balcony during swim meets, where she would take pictures and have squirt-gun fights; last summer’s tie-dye party; the giddy thrills of being stranded in a snowstorm after a swim meet in Westbrook.

Friendship meant everything to Megan, said those who shared it with her.

“We just wanted to be ourselves, and not put on acts for anyone,” Colley said. “What I’ll remember most is just being with her.”

Adults remembered an ever-smiling youngster who hungrily expanded her vast range with each new endeavor, testing herself constantly and sweeping up others in the challenge.

“She was the kid in our troop who always said, `Hey, we can do that.’ Megan was the spark plug, the person who had to accomplish everything,” said Carolyn Bower, the leader of Girl Scout Troop 136. “She definitely had a will of her own. No one could tell Megan what to do.”

When the troop went hiking one blistering hot day at Pleasant Pond, Megan doggedly continued up the Appalachian Trail despite a terribly stuffed head from the flu.

“It was a rough climb but she wouldn’t give up,” Bower said. “We told her, `Megan, you don’t have to do this,’ but she was determined to get it done.”

Kevin Broad, coach of the Bangor High girl swimmers, said Megan’s indomitable will made her incapable of settling for anything less than her best.

“She had a bad race one night and was upset about it,” Broad said. “I tried to convince her that it was that time of the year when we were all tired and stagnant. But there was no convincing her. Nothing could hold her back from what she had to do.”

Her intensity, strong will, and boundless energy kept life happily frantic at the Walker home. Mrs. Walker recalled one typical March day, while Megan was preparing for the National YMCA Swim Meet in Orlando, Fla., that included a piano lesson after school, followed by two hours of swim practice in Old Town, after which Megan grabbed her cello from her father and drove back to Bangor to perform with a trio during an induction meeting for the National Honor Society. Later that night, her time was filled with phone calls to friends.

Trying to slow their goal-driven daughter was futile, her parents said. The morning after a championship swim meet in February, when Megan swam her fastest time ever in the freestyle, she was already talking about a new challenge.

“I told her to enjoy her accomplishment first, not to set any more goals for a while,” said Mrs. Walker, sitting by a living room table that was covered with pictures of smiling Megan. “Megan just took up the whole house. There was a real joy as parents in being with her, and talking with her on anything.”

The last thing they talked about was Earth Day. Megan wanted desperately to go with her friends to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park for Sunday’s sunrise celebration.

“She had been planning it all week and we debated whether to let her go,” said Mr. Walker. “It was a big event for her, and I said yes. I have no reason to regret that decision. She was as happy as she could be that day — singing songs and racing up and down the roads.”

Barefoot, in T-shirt and shorts, Megan went hiking at noon with her friends along the cliffs of Cooksey Drive in Seal Harbor. The rocks were not especially treacherous there, and Megan was not a reckless girl. Her friends said she stepped onto a wet spot near a ledge, lost her balance, and fell into a deep crevice below. Her head struck a rock on the way down, and it is believed she was either dead or unconscious when she hit the water 40 feet below.

By Thursday, her body had not been found.

Now, her family and friends have been left to marvel at how much Megan was able to accomplish, how many people she had touched. Sadly, they also have been left to wonder how much more the extraordinary youngster might have been able to give.

“The last year or so is when Megan really started to look at life,” her father said quietly, staring into his daughter’s empty room.