It can be hard for young people to know that it can and will
get better. And it is especially because it is hard to talk about, that we need
to talk about it. Lauren’s struggles were on and off, and not just one day. She
put pressures on herself. She was sometimes caught up in every little worry,
and in reaching a perfection that she already was.
When she was just 9 ½ months old, she walked & she never
stopped. She was so little it was funny to see her walking.
Her favourite colour was red & her nickname was Peachyhead,
especially by Josh & Dad, or Peach Fuzzy Brown Hair Elizabeth Wright to
her Aunt Judy & Cousin Katy. She was a tomboy who loved her comfy clothes,
and since she was little we would like to joke that we would dress her in a
little outfit, and she would arrive clean. And then she could get messy.
Lauren loved to play board games with the
cousins, and outside she enjoyed softball, bocce ball, and badminton but what
she may have enjoyed the most was the yearly hockey game at Christmas. And the
last time she was at the lake, she had a special little fishing trip with Dad.
She had a great friend in Kelly, who at 4 years older than
Lauren first helped change her diapers, took her for walks in the stroller, and
from there they were best friends.
Her spunk as a kid turned into a little firecracker of a
teenager.
When she was coming out, she would go and sleep in the
gazebo at Dad’s. And we will find the comfort and strength that she did in that
gazebo to be our true selves with our loved ones too.
She was so overjoyed to be an Aunt to her baby cousin Avery,
or the Aviator. She would bounce Aves around in her lap, and Avery would dance
for us.
She was a dedicated player in her sports. She started out in
hockey playing with the boys in the OCHL, and Lauren had told Alex that my mom
would give her the best pep talks in her separate changeroom. She said that she
really liked playing with the boys. We think she might have liked defence
because she liked getting the other team to back off her teammates, and she liked
protecting her goalie. In baseball, her favourite positions were catcher, first
base and third, and Dad was her favourite coach. During practice her very first
season she made one big hit, bigger than the other kids were making, and when
she came off the field she told my mom “Mom, I think I want to be batter
instead of a catcher.” She had a lot to learn about baseball, and she did. Her
teammates tell us that they will let her remain in their hearts every time they
step out on a field.
She graduated high school with top grades, and won the
French, Accounting, and Advanced Functions awards.
In the summer of 2013, Lauren had a special weekend at Elisa’s
family’s cottage with her friends. The way we heard it, after a day of settling
in and perhaps starting to let loose, there was a bat flying around in the
living that made them all run out and they just didn’t know what to do. So the four of them slept in the car for the
night, and then they packed up the next morning.
She went to University of Waterloo for accounting. In Frosh
Week she got an award from her group for being the most enthusiastic. She got
involved with the Federation of Students Diversity Education Team right from
the start.
She was so honest, and always just wanting people to speak
their minds.
Her friends say that she helped them to do their best
and she was always their biggest support.
And she will live on through them continuing to do that for
each other. Lauren was a star, and we have such gratitude to you for being here
with us to celebrate her life.
