The woman who died in a house fire Monday morning was a prominent member of the Bangor community who spent decades involved at her local church.
Carla Durgin, 84, died in a fire around 5:20 a.m. at her home on Fairways. She was one of the sweetest people and deeply loved her family, friend Rita Worster said.
Durgin was the wife of the late Maj. Gen. Nelson Durgin, a former Bangor City Council chair and advocate for Maine veterans, early childhood education and the elderly. The couple met while working at the Bethel Inn and were married for 59 years, his obituary said.
His passing in 2020 was difficult for Durgin, and she slowed her volunteer work in the years after, Worster said.
“Her family was everything to her,” Worster said. “Her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. They were the light of her life.”
One family member gave Durgin an electronic picture frame so people could send pictures to it. Every time there were new pictures, Durgin was always excited to show Worster, the friend said.
Worster knew Durgin for roughly 18 years through Hammond Street Congregational Church and started helping Durgin with household chores around 14 years ago. That gave Worster time to get to know Durgin well.
Gardening and landscaping were things Durgin enjoyed that Worster assisted with as Durgin became unable to do them. Worster would set up a garden box on the back porch every spring so Durgin could grow tomatoes, lettuce and other vegetables without needing to bend down.
“It just made her so happy to look out there and see the raspberries and all the beautiful landscape that she had looking really nice, the flowers popping out,” Worster said.
Learning about Durgin’s death this morning was a shock, Worster said. She said Durgin was a great person and will be missed.
“It was just a joy to be her friend,” Worster said. “I really thought the world of her, I did.”
The couple received the Distinguished Citizen Awards from Katahdin Area Council Boy Scouts of America in 2012. Durgin graduated from Gorham State Teacher’s College and taught in Belfast until the birth of her first child, according to a news release about the Boy Scouts award.
She volunteered at the Bangor schools while the couple’s two children attended. She also fundraised for the Bangor State Hospital.
The Durgin Center in Brewer was named after her late husband in 2022. He knew the center would be named in his honor prior to his death, the couple’s son, Michael Durgin, said at the opening.