She lived every day as a new adventure and rarely thought about tomorrow.
That's how Dawn Glinsky will remember her 17year-old daughter, Morgan Sparrow, who went to sleep July 15 and never woke up.
A candlelight vigil on Friday (tonight) followed by a celebration of life on Saturday will be held to remember the popular, talented and "quirky" teenager who died suddenly last week.
Messages of sorrow and support have been flooding onto a memorial website and a special Facebook page set up to honour Blair elementary and Burnett secondary graduate Morgan.
The page already has 345 members and is filled with heartfelt messages and pictures posted by friends.
"She touched the lives of so many people and that is evident in the messages and postings on Facebook," Glinsky told the News.
"To her, every day was a new day to do stuff. She was big time into Facebook and texting friends.
"I used to keep telling her, 'why don't you just call your friends, that's what I did when I was your age.' And she would always say, 'you never had texting when you were my age.'"
Morgan's "big thing" the entire last year was prom and graduating. "That's all we ever heard about," Glinsky said. "She also received a scholarship from Blair (elementary). She wrote a thank you letter to them, but she never got a chance to deliver it."
Sushi, shopping, Facebook and baseball all topped Morgan's loves, said her mom. "She played in Richmond for the Boomers and then the Jaguars."
Glinsky said her daughter was planning to go to Langara College in September to do general studies, because she still "hadn't quite decided what to do with her life yet."
Illustrating the regard in which Morgan was held, one Facebook picture, posted by Tanzy Sayadi, shows off a fresh tattoo in honour of her "best friend."
"We have lost our angel, but she is never to be forgotten," her family wrote in her obituary. They described Morgan as a "beacon of light that will always shine in our hearts. "We miss you terribly funny girl and you will never leave our hearts ... we will love you always!"
The candlelight vigil, organized by her friends, will take place at Burnett secondary on Friday at 7 p.m.
The celebration of Morgan's life will be held on Saturday, July 23 at 2 p.m. at the Richmond Funeral Home at 8420 Cambie Rd.
acampbell@richmond-news.com
