Laura Williams

May 12, 1976 – November 14, 2018

Our mom never let cancer define her, she was always herself.  Never letting cancer make her different was important to her. She made the best of every day and nothing would stand in her way!

We were three and four years old when she was diagnosed; we have always known her with cancer.  It was routine for us when she had to go to treatment and appointments. It was often she didn’t feel well, but she always made sure that cancer didn’t affect our daily lives.  She was too bossy to let something tell her what to do! She always made us laugh when we needed it, understood our quirks, knew what we were trying to say, and would do whatever she could to help us.

One of the biggest things she taught us was how to love ourselves and be comfortable with who we are and in our skin.  She always stood up for what she believed in and didn’t care what people would think; she had the confidence to go the opposite direction of everyone else. 

We traveled A LOT!  Making memories was important because she never knew when the time would come that she wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.  We always would go on spur-of-the-moment trips to Ocean City, Florida, and even across the country in our minivan. She even smuggled our dog into Canada once because she decided while driving home from our camp on a Sunday evening that she wanted to go, and nothing was going to get in the way.  She planned our Europe trip in a month, and she even developed an accent for every place we visited. One day she was German, Italian the next, and French another day. She had the best sense of humor.

Before she was diagnosed, she was the one always behind the camera. That all changed after.  She would take so many pictures of everything, and made sure she was in most of them so we would have the memories to look back on. 

Selfies became her thing: often when she was not feeling well and couldn’t get out and about, she would lay there taking pictures with filters, poses, and learning what angles looked best.  We are so thankful now for her doing that.

She was an advocate for anything Metastatic Breast Cancer,  often talking with other newly diagnosed MBC women on how to cope with therapies, family and friends.  Sharing her experiences over the years was a therapy to her as well as the women she was talking to.

She taught us family is important and to always be kind to each other.  Always accept people for who they are, and give everyone at least one chance. 

If someone would miss out on a chance to meet or talk to our mom, they missed the opportunity to meet a very unique person.  

Written by Brooklyn and Jordan Williams