A small community west of Ottawa is mourning the loss of a much-loved teacher. Megan Kumpula died just before Christmas, after contracting meningitis.   The 34-year-old had everything going for her:  a great job, a beautiful young daughter, a loving husband.  But within days of becoming ill, she passed away, leaving friends and family reeling.   Her husband Greg Kumpula is working from home these days, trying to figure out life, suddenly without his wife by his side.  On this particular day, he is trying to organize the hundreds of photos that highlight their life together: their wedding, their pregnancy and the birth of their beautiful 14-month-old daughter Jocelyn, who doesn't understand where her mother has gone.

“She’ll take a picture off the fridge,” says Greg, “and give it a hug and walk around with it.”

Megan, a popular teacher at Pakenham Public School, started feeling ill just after school on November 27th. It progressed quickly that evening.

“Her pupils were dilated,” recalls Greg, “she was pale, she wasn’t making much sense.”

Megan was rushed to the Queensway Carleton hospital and, after multiple tests, diagnosed with meningitis.  It was bad.

“The infection had gone from her chest, to her blood stream, into her central nervous system and once there,” says Greg, “it's like a rocket ship right into her brain.”

Greg credits the medical staff for doing everything they could for his wife.  She died 5 days later.

“When Greg sent me an email telling me about Megan’s death,” says Carl McDonald, “I couldn’t believe it.  It was haunting me, for weeks afterwards. I really felt I had to do something.”

McDonald had worked with Greg for 5 years at Alzar Industries in Ottawa.  He knew Megan well.  The musician decided to organize a fundraiser to help raise money for Jocelyn’s education. This Saturday, friends and family will gather at the Brass Monkey in Ottawa at 7 p.m.  And her school, her first and on job for eight years, where she taught as a core French teacher to all the children in the school, will honor her memory.

“We’re going to have an award in Madame Kumpula’s name,” says the principal of the school, Dave Balfour, “given annually to one of our graduating students.  And she was really into butterflies and so we are looking at a butterfly garden in our school yard with a plaque there.”

For Greg, that support means everything but there are dark days ahead, raising a daughter without a mother, living life without his wife.

“Megan was the most wonderful person,” he says, “I knew that from the time we first met.”

Death from meningitis is still pretty rare but it can be a life-threatening disease.  Ottawa Public Health says of the 73 cases reported since January of last year, there has just one death.