Maggie Brown. —Provided.

Maggie Brown had a vivacious spirit.

She was a talented writer and wanted to become a veterinary technician.

She loved to sit by the ocean in Maine, where she lived in Portland.

On March 29, the 25-year-old, who would have celebrated her birthday on April 22, died of a drug overdose at her mother’s home, her family told the Portland Press Herald.

“I have a mixture of relief and grief,” her mother, Susan Joyce, told the newspaper. “I’ve been trying to save my daughter for 12 years. I’m trying to figure out what my new normal is.”

In the obituary for the 25-year-old, Brown’s family wrote of the young woman’s loves, how she always enjoyed being out in nature and had a “special connection” to animals.


“She had such a way with words and sharing guidance with those around her,” her family said in her obituary. “Above all, she loved her family and friends incredibly.”

Brown’s sister, Anna, told the Press Herald that her sibling had struggled with substance use disorder since she was a teen and also dealt with depression, ADHD, and bipolar disorder for years.

Joyce told the Press Herald that her 25-year-old daughter had overdosed at least six times and had been arrested several times on charges including possession of drugs and operating under the influence.

“I can’t tell you how many times I cried at the hospital and said, ‘Please don’t release her. Please. I’m going to get a call. She’s going to die,’” Joyce told the newspaper. “Never mind a wall. Save the ones who are here and need the help.”

Brown was released on March 21 from Maine Correctional Center, where she’d been incarcerated since August, according to the Press Herald.

Brown’s family said in her obituary that they never “gave up hope” for the 25-year-old as she battled her addiction. They wrote that they will “never stop advocating for all those touched by this terrible epidemic and disease.”


“Our hearts hurt that many people will never see the bright young woman that was the soul and essence of Maggie—the confidante, the intellect, the writer, the compassionate daughter, sister, and friend,” they wrote. “She had the biggest heart. We want how hard she fought to be a part of her story. We do not want people to feel sorry for her because she struggled with addiction and succumbed to it. We do not want the astonishing light that was Maggie to be overshadowed by the darkness of this tragedy. She was not her addiction. She was not her mental illness.”

Read the full obituary for Brown, shared by A.T. Hutchins Funeral and Cremation Services, below: