WESTMINSTER, Colo. — Moms are keepers. For Meghan Bigelow, that means keeping memories – all of them, even the bad.
In 2018, Meghan was driving her three sons to a dentist appointment in Westminster when a man, Jeremy Webster, got mad that she tried to get into his lane when pulling over for an emergency vehicle. He followed them to the dentist and opened fire in the parking lot.
Meghan Bigelow was shot in the head. Her 7-year-old son was hurt. Her 13-year-old son Vaughn, whom they called Bubba, was killed.
"I think what resonated so much with our story was I was doing something that moms do all the time. I was taking my kids to the dentist's office," Meghan said. "That's all."
Now, they're telling their story in a documentary.
"It's called 'Treading Still.' So it's a story, the story of Bubba, from when he was little," Meghan said.
The documentary will premiere Monday, July 8, on what would have been Bubba's 20th birthday, at The Ranch in Westminster.
Meghan Bigelow has kept her boys close in the six summers they've counted without Bubba. When people ask her how many kids she has, she always says three.
"I'll say well, I have three. A son who's a senior, a son in seventh grade and a son who is forever 13," Meghan said. "And that's the truth of it. Bubba will forever be 13. He'll be two weeks shy of his 14th birthday."
It's been six summers without Bubba, and six years since Meghan and her son Asa nearly died.
"I remember trying to count how many gunshots went off," Meghan said. She said she lost track and played dead so Webster wouldn't shoot her again.
Meghan remembers her son Cooper saying "Mom" over and over again.
"I remember thinking, I can't lie to him," she said. "I can't say I'm OK."
Meghan said first responders looked at her and thought that if she wasn't dead, she would be soon.
"Even the first police officer didn't think I was going to make it, which is pretty surreal to hear," Meghan said.
She and Asa would both go on to have surgery: more than 30 surgeries for Asa and dozens of surgeries for Meghan. After all of that, she's still here for them.
"What were my options?" Meghan said. "They were lay in bed under the covers, hide, or know that I had Cooper, Asa, Vaughn that still needed me, like, I was a part of the family."
Now, new memories have joined the old ones, like the milestones reached with every year that passes. Things like birthdays and graduations, driver's licenses and school dances.
"It's crazy to see Cooper get his license, go to high school, go to prom, homecoming – all of those things, and now he's about to graduate high school. Things that Bubba's never gotten," Meghan said.
Her middle son is now her oldest, mature enough to tell a jury the horrible details he still carried with him from the day his brother died.
Cooper Bigelow testified in Webster's trial in 2023.
"There were certain things I did not know that he saw, or knew, or did, until he testified," Meghan said. "I think it was kind of cleansing for him. Healing is probably not the right word, but he felt he had the ability to help."
In April 2023, Webster was found guilty of several counts, including first-degree murder. He's serving life in prison.
These days, Meghan doesn't keep her son's memories alive by herself. It turns out families are keepers, too.
"You think, 'Oh I remember that time,' or what we were doing surrounding that picture," Meghan said. "I remember how much he smiled or loved or laughed at his brother doing something silly."
The Bigelows keep doing things for Bubba, like creating Big Waves Inc. in his memory. The nonprofit advocates for gun safety in honor of Bubba and awards scholarships to water polo athletes who live in Colorado.
July 8 has been dubbed "lock your gun day" by Meghan. Big Waves supplies free gun locks for anyone who needs them.
"It's what can we do? How can we make the world better, and how can we remember Bubba?" Meghan said.
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