Laura was born on March 7, 1963 in Mount Vernon, Washington and died March 21, 2015 in Seattle.
As a child, Laura lived in Mount Vernon and Anacortes. She moved to Seattle when a teenager to live with her sister, Charlene Meins. She was a student at Franklin High School, graduating in 1981. She then attended Central Washington University. After her time at Central, she lived and worked in Ellensburg and Longview before moving back to Seattle to be near her sister.
While living in Seattle the past 10 years, Laura has been actively involved in the arena of mental health. She was a volunteer with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Greater Seattle. As a presenter of the NAMI program “In Our Own Voice”, Laura educated students and health care workers about living with mental illness. Laura was an advocate for system change to a more recovery oriented approach to mental health through her role on a King County mental health advisory committee, “Voices of Recovery”. She also participated in fidelity reviews of service providers. She was recently employed in the King County Mental Health Ombuds office working with clients to identify resources or solve problems.
In addition to her sister Charlene, Laura is survived by her nephew Nicholas Crocker, her nieces Tory Lucas and Rebekah Leech, her nephew and niece Blaine Mahala and Jeanine Mahala, and her Aunt and Uncle Joan and Jim Vlahovich. Laura was preceded in death by her parents, the late Louis W. and Jeanne S. Meins and her sister Valerie.
Laura’s final resting place will be with her family in the Burlington Greenhills Cemetery. An informal interment will take place April 10th at 2:00 pm.
She was greatly loved and will be missed by many. Donations can be made in her memory to NAMI Greater Seattle.