Morgan Jane Bass entered the world more than two months early, weighing in at just 2 pounds, 4 ounces. But she was healthy and perfect, her mother said Saturday. That tiny baby grew into a young woman with big dreams and talents.
“I just knew she was here for a reason,” Mary Helen Mehaffey said.
The ultimate fashionista, Bass loved jewelry, shoes and purses, showing partiality to the color pink. She also had a knack for decorating, and even refinished and painted the furniture for her room at college. She was crafty, too, even painting coolers for college events and as a gift for her mother.
“She was really creative,” Mehaffey said. “She could’ve done just about anything.”
Her Georgia Southern University professors urged her to pursue other career options, maybe journalism because of her writing talents, because of her strong academic work. But Bass wouldn’t have it.
She set her mind on becoming a nurse anesthetist and working with babies, and she didn’t waver, her mother said. Bass was on her way to Savannah early Wednesday with several of her nursing school classmates when she and four others were killed in a multi-vehicle pileup. She was 20.
It was devastating news for Mehaffey to learn she’d lost her only child: A sweet, affectionate, bubbly young woman with a flair for sparkly and pretty things.
Splitting time growing up with both her mother and father, Bass had the opportunity to live in Mexico City and the Atlanta area before moving to Leesburg, near Albany, to finish high school. From there, Bass went to Statesboro, where she joined the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and then the nursing program.
In addition to many relatives and friends, Bass leaves behind her beloved toy poodle, Bella.
Visitation for Bass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Aldridge funeral home in Americus. Her funeral, which will follow at noon, will be open to the public.
“Morgan would love nothing more than to have a funeral like a celebrity,” Mehaffey said.
A Go Fund Me page has been created to help establish a scholarship in Bass's honor.
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