Seeking Megan: Who wrote this last, beautiful message?

It's been about seven months since my brother-in-law Matthew Nichols died unexpectedly inside the Melbourne home where he lived with his parents.

He was my wife's only sibling.

Matt had only recently moved back into the area after spending some time in Boston and then Michigan. He was a mountain of a man, imposing really, but truly exemplified the term "gentle giant." I remember my in-laws — Jim and Trish Nichols — and my wife scrambling to find his closest friends in order to let them know that he'd died and invite them to a celebration of his life.

Many came and shared their stories and remembrances with a mother, who hungered for even the tiniest tidbit regarding her beloved son's life. It was a way of keeping him alive, here with us. And it was easy to understand.

It's also easy to understand how both Jim and Trish have struggled these last few months. That's makes what happened two weeks ago that much more special for the couple.

Trish plugged in her son's cell phone -- his plan had long been cancelled -- and a text message scrolled across the top that she had not seen before. She called me to come over to see if I could retrieve the brief quick-to-vanish message. After a little tinkering we discovered it was from a woman named "Megan," who had sent the message only a few days after Matt's passing. Her message, in part, read:

"Well I found your obituary...I still don't know how or why though. All I know is your gone. I love you and I have thought about you every single day...I hope your spirit finds its way to your ultimate happiness...I want to talk to you. I wish this was all a joke."

There's more. Some of it is personal; all of it is lovely.

I read it aloud to my mother-in-law and the tears cascaded from her red suffering eyes. But in the pain, there was also the promise of an unknown friend, someone who knew and cared for her son on another level. Now there was someone new to talk to, someone to keep Matt here just a little bit longer.

I wrote down Megan's Brevard County phone number and gave it to my mother-in-law, who dialed it later after composing herself.

There were so many questions, so much she wanted to know.

But the number had been disconnected.

Desperate, she wrote up a few lines and gave them to me. It was for a classified ad she wanted to take out in the paper that read: "Megan, friend of Matt Nichols, please contact me, Matt’s mom at trishnichols10@yahoo.com and leave a contact number."

And that brings me to today's column and the hope that you will read it, post it on your Facebook pages, tweet it out or tell people you know to read it and share it. Her ad should appear sometime this week as well.

Megan is out there somewhere and now I feel compelled to find her, to introduce her to a woman whose heart aches for just one more story, one more memory, one more minute living in the breath of her son's life.

Contact Torres at 321-242-3684 or at jtorres@floridatoday.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FTjohntorres.