We are gathered here today to pay honor to the life of a young woman who dedicated her life to public service. Megan Looney was only 21-years old at the time of her death, yet in those short 21-years, she served as a member of the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department, was a full-time Dispatcher with the Ocean City Emergency Communications Division for 3 years, and finally became a Police Officer with the Ocean City Police Department this past summer. How full and complete was her contribution to her community in such a short lifetime!

I first met Megan during her service as a Public Safety Dispatcher. I remember the comments about how professional and cool she was during a crisis.  To win the confidence of many veteran police officers and fire fighters in the field is no small accomplishment. They are a tough audience, because they know their safety depends on the professionalism of dispatchers such as Megan.

In May of this year, Megan began her 4 weeks of training in our Seasonal Officer Academy.  She was known as a tough recruit, one that came back time-and-again in Self-Defense Training to subdue her instructors, no matter how tough the resistance. This won her the respect of both her instructors and her fellow classmates.

Upon graduation from the training academy, she was assigned to Day Watch Southern District. Due to her knowledge of the community, as well as her experience as a dispatcher, Megan worked both in a Marked Patrol Vehicle as well as on Foot Patrol within her district.  Not every first-year Seasonal Police Officer is given this much responsibility, but then again, remember that Megan was not the ordinary first-year recruit. She had already given years of service to her community in other ways!

As her Watch Commander, Lieutenant Robert Bokinsky told me "Everybody liked Megan Looney. I never heard her complian, or heard a bad word said about her."  She always seemed to be around or involved when some of the major arrests were made by her watch. Her mother heard her first arrest being made over the police scanner, and when she came home that night, there was a rose waiting for her on the table.  How wonderful a mother's love is for her daughter, to share that moment together.  How powerful is the example her father set as a Volunteer Fire Fighter, to lead her on the path to public service.

In the final weeks of her life, unknown to all of us, the cancer was affecting her body, yet she continued to work and report for duty and support her fellow police officers on the street.  The bond that only those who depend on one another for their lives can understand, was strong, and Megan was not going to let her Southern District brothers and sisters down. Only when she was felled in uniform, would she go to the hospital.  Several weeks later, God summoned her to Heaven.

Those of us who remain behind shall pledge not to forget her memory, nor the positive role model she shaped for all of us who wear the badge of the Ocean City Police Department. We would do well to remember the courage and dedication she displayed in sickness and in health. I know Megan is listening to us today, and I want her to know that we love her, and that one day we shall see her again.
 

I would like to say a few words in tribute to Megan on behalf of her family.

Last Saturday, when Megan breathed her last breath, she was surrounded in that small hospital room by twenty-five family members and close friends.  One of those friends was Eric Larson.  Eric got to know Megan well early this year when they were travelling companions in Europe for a few weeks.  Minutes before her death, Eric and I were alone in the hospital corridor, and he said to me, "I never met anyone who cared so much for her family."

That is a comforting thought today for us, her family.  Although it may come as a bit of a shock to many of you, her friends.  You may be thinking she cared for you more than anyone in the world.  That was one of Megan's special gifts.

But let me speak for a moment about Megan and her family.

What a closeness there is between Megan and her Mom, Terry.  Megan is the baby daughter.  As an infant, she was nursed at her mother's breasts.  And she was not quick to give up that special bond. 

I recall that when she was weaned, and began eating solid foods, one of her favorites was American cheese.  But she couldn't always finish a whole slice.  To keep any of the other Looney scavengers from getting her leftover cheese, she would stuff it into Terry's bra.  She called that personal hiding place "my pockey".

Almost ten years ago, Terry attended her first CENTURY 21 convention.  There she witnessed for the first time the inspiring sight of the top real estate salespeople from around the world being honored with the Centurion award in front of eight thousand of their cheering peers.  It became her dream to some day receive that Oscar-like trophy in front of that admiring throng.

Megan believed in that dream long before Terry herself did.  She became Terry's biggest cheer-leader…urging her on to get the "little gold man".

This year the dream came true.  And Megan was there in Las Vegas with the whole family, cheering with eight thousand others as her Mom paraded proudly across the stage, "little gold man" in hand.  It was Megan's last family vacation.  And Terry, it was a very happy and proud time for her.

Between a father and a daughter there is always a unique relationship.  But I doubt that any father has loved and shared with all three of his daughters more than Denny.  Nor has any relationship been more unique.

Much as he loves his daughters, Denny used to jokingly kibitz with them about how much he really wanted a son.  While every bit his little girl, Megan seemed to take it upon herself to fill that void of not having a son.  She used to do everything with him.

I remember especially how often the two of them would wrestle on the living room floor.  It used to be that the outcome was never in doubt, but recently Megan has come out on top.  I'm sure there are a few perpetrators, and at least one fellow police officer, who share that embarrassment with Denny.

Megan followed her father into the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company.  To a large extent, Denny is responsible for her distinguished, though too brief, career of service to this City.  He was her hero.

Terry and Denny, I have often said how amazed I am at the beautiful job of parenting you have done for your girls. 

You are very proud of Megan, and rightly so.  But Megan is also very proud of you, and rightly so.

Sisters share so much in life, and even more so in a very loving family. 

Some have commented that Kim and Megan almost look like twins, despite the difference in their ages.  They certainly share a bond like twins.  I don't think either one could ever shop without the other.  And on family outings, they were always hand in hand, head to head, sharing whispers and giggles together. 

There was never a better big sister.  And never a more admiring and trusting little sister.  Megan is Kim's biggest fan.  But more than that, Megan is Kim's best friend. 

Kim, your loss is deep.  But so is the love and help that Megan is shining down on you from above.

Perhaps no one here understands better what Megan has suffered through these past weeks than Tina.  Not too many years ago, she herself laid sick and in pain for weeks in the hospital…for a while seeming near death. 

Megan was by her side all the way, crying and praying, joking and encouraging, and telling Tina how much she loves her. 

Still waters run deep.  Tina is not one to show her emotions readily, or the depth of her feelings.  But those of us who are close to her know what is there.

During these recent weeks, Tina ended every conversation with her sister, uncharacteristically, with the words "I love you, Megan".  Megan commented to Terry, "Mom, that's big for Tina."

As Megan was dying Saturday, the doctors and nurses assured us that, although she was not responsive, the part of her brain that controlled her understanding and her hearing were still very active.  It was comforting to all of us, and I am sure to Megan as well, that she could hear and understand what we were saying to her.  And each of us had a chance to say some words of encouragement.

But the one thing I remember hearing the most that day, every ten or fifteen minutes it seems, from wherever she was in the room, was the strong and confident voice of Tina echoing the phrase, "I love you, Megan".

Tina, I know Megan went to heaven with your message ringing loud and clear in her ears, and in her heart.  Megan loves you, Tina.

It is a blessing for all of us that Megan cared and did for each of us in a way that made us feel like family.  So many of you have said these past few days, "She was like a daughter to me", or "She was like a sister to me."  Let me add that for me, her uncle and godfather, she is truly like a daughter.  For Colleen, her college roommate, she is truly like a sister.

I would like to conclude with Megan's own thoughts about her family, jotted on a paper Terry and Denny found among her things at college.

"I have learned that no matter what, my family will be there for support and love.  "

"For one, there have been many occasions when my family has stood by me.  My family has gone through a great deal of hardships and has remained strong and a close unit."

"It has helped me to feel accepted.  I know that I can take risks in life and its OK.  If I fail, its OK.  They will still love and support me."

"I can't dictate how other families are run.  I have tried to explain to others how mine is run, and they are usually envious of me."

Megan Looney was a crusader.  And what she crusaded for most, were her family and her friends.  Yes, we miss Megan.  But what better place to have a crusader than at the throne of God.