Tony and Vicki Duris arrived at rehearsal to the most tragic sound.

“It is emotional,” is all Tony could say about hearing the music his daughter — the violinist — used to play.

The Sylvania couple came bearing an announcement on this particular Sunday, five weeks after Morgan was killed crossing the street to get on her school bus.

Toledo International Youth Orchestra (TIYO) member and cellist Ian Pribe would receive a scholarship to travel to Austria and Hungary this summer — a trip Morgan was set to take. It would have been her first international trip.

From left, Vicki and Tony Duris with TIYO essay Contest winner Ian Pribe.

“She loved to travel and she has visited her cousins in Hawaii, but that was her last major trip,” Vicki said. “I think she was thrilled to be going. She wanted to see the countries, and I know that she knew it was very different from anywhere she had been.

“Plus, I was hoping she would come back a more mature, responsible person, more wanting to practice,” Vicki said, laughing.

The couple chose 15-year-old Ian to receive the $3,500 scholarship paid for through donations in honor of their daughter who was the same age. Four people applied for the musical mission; 21 other students had already committed to the trip.

“We wanted to send someone who really wouldn’t otherwise be able to go at this time without a scholarship and because it wasn’t the easiest thing for us to get the money together to send Morgan,” Vicki said.

“I just sensed that Ian might really get something from this trip and probably be something he would take with him for the rest of his life,” she said. “You just never know the people you might meet on the trips or how years down the road, those things may come back. I just felt by choosing Ian, it would be a good way to honor Morgan. I felt like [he] might really grow from the experience and appreciate it.”

Ian said his family could not afford to send him on the trip. His mother was downsized out of her job, and his father was laid off for a while.

“Morgan actually was in my orchestra class at Northview,” Ian said. “A lot of people miss her smile and her positive attitude … and everyone has so many memories of her. I just feel really honored that I am going on this trip in her memory.”

Part of his job on the trip will be to distribute flower seeds in Morgan’s honor. He would like to plant the seeds in the shape of her initials.

“She loved flowers and she was always smiling,” said orchestra manager Liz Villarreal. “Even in her clothing, she always wore things with flowers. She was a flowery girl. So, by bringing these seeds to another country, we will bring her memory.”

Ian wrote an essay detailing why he would like to go on the trip.

“I was keeping in mind what TIYO means to me and what it is doing for me,” Ian said. “I am really quiet and I don’t want to talk much around new people, so it is helping me open up.”

Power of music

Morgan joined TIYO last year, before the orchestra traveled to Toledo’s sister city, Tanga, Tanzania. Although she didn’t make that trip, she played at concerts to raise money for the school in Africa.

“She was starting to come out of her shell,” Tony said. “She was always real shy, a lot of times around family and adults … she was starting to become more mature, and I think being a member of TIYO helped. She still wasn’t to the point where I could get her to play her instrument for her grandmother.”

Vicki said Morgan was private, despite her smile and cheerful demeanor with friends. She was a gifted artist, who would not show anyone her work from the time she was a toddler.

“She would spend hours drawing,” Vicki said. “We have hundreds and hundreds of her drawings, but she wouldn’t show us. She would go to bed and we would have to rifle through all of her papers and that is how she has always been, even when she got older, she would be private about her work.”

TIYO conductor Yang Kun Song said Morgan had improved since beginning private lessons with him 18 months ago. Her dad remembers a lot of giggling when he wanted her to be serious.

“You could tell the progress she made. When she first came, she never gave up, she worked hard,” Song said.

Villarreal said the decision to start the scholarship surfaced immediately after Morgan’s death. Orchestra members suggested doing something that would last forever.

“It is great that he is going, but we feel so terrible under the circumstances,” said Bill Pribe, Ian’s dad.

“It is an honor and a privilege for Ian to be able to accept this, and with it comes a responsibility to carry on Morgan’s memory,” added his mother, Donna.

Strong girl

Vicki often wondered if her daughter was truly happy. At 15, it is a wonderful time of life, but it is difficult, too, she said.

Morgan’s older brother, Joshua, is severely handicapped, which contributed to her shyness. He suffered from a degenerative disease called mitochondrial disorder complex I.

“His body cannot produce the energy it needs,” Tony said. “He is pretty sharp, but he cannot communicate with us anymore, especially with Morgan’s tragedy, we don’t know what Joshua is thinking.”

When they were little, Joshua was not as sick and Morgan didn’t view him as handicapped. But as she got older, her friends wondered what was wrong and she felt differently because she was his sister.

Morgan would at times pretend her brother was not going through such difficult times, Vicki said. The family’s house wasn’t always fun, with medical equipment all over and nurses coming in and out to care for her brother. One reason she was looking forward to the TIYO trip was because the family couldn’t go on many trips.

“In some ways, she was very independent from the time she was an infant,” Vicki said. “Sometimes I felt like she was stronger than me.”

The family has found comfort in viewing photos posted on Facebook, as well as photos she had on her camera. It was a different side of their daughter — a side that helps them get through the rougher days.

Tony works the third shift at the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, while Vicki has decided to stay home.

Her dad has found solace in Morgan’s pets, in particular the dogs, who have been moping around in her absence, he said.

“Her cousins offered to adopt her pets, but I don’t think I can just give them up. I want to hang onto them and see what happens.”

Final note

The last time Morgan performed was at a Jan. 9 concert to raise money for the Toledo Secondary School in Tanga.

Less than two weeks later, she was struck by an SUV as she crossed Erie Street. Her body was thrown into the air in front of students on the bus. She died at the hospital shortly after.

Cynthia Anderson of Toledo has pleaded not guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide. Her trial is set for March 30; she did not return a request for comment.

“I was looking at the school bus I think, to see if that red thing was going to put out,” Anderson stated in the police report. “It was stopping. I was going to the see the red thing and I was going to beat it. I wasn’t looking over there, the child just darted out.”

She went on to say, “I was wrong. I should have just been calm and cool and stopped. I wasn’t thinking.”

Vicki and Tony would not comment because of the upcoming trial. It is still hard for them to believe that with all the dangers in the world, their daughter was killed as she crossed the street to get on a school bus.

They want to stay involved in TIYO because it provides a connection to their daughter, although to what extent, they are not sure.

“We are thoroughly immersed in our grief right now, but as far as knowing exactly what we are going to do, we are just really grieving right now,” Vicki said.

But the couple is glad a scholarship has been established in her honor.

“No matter what happens, you always want to provide for your children,” Vicki said. “You always want to give them wonderful experiences in their life that will last throughout their life.”

She hopes Ian learns from the trip, which will include performances, as well as sightseeing in Toledo sister cities, Budapest and Szeged. Vicki is convinced the trip would have been life-changing for Morgan, too. Sadly, no one will ever know.

“She would have returned a different girl,” she said.

Tags: TIYO

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