Dear Laura Byrne McLaughlin, aka Mom, Grandma, and Morai,

We, your beloved family, are happy for you even as we are sad for ourselves. We feel grateful that your passing was peaceful on April 15, 2025, at the age of 89 after enduring a long illness. What a privilege to spend the last several days of your life surrounding you, our Mom-Grandma-Morai, with raucous storytelling, laughter, tears, and music. During the final year of your rich life, we often gathered in your apartment to celebrate birthdays and holidays, and those loud celebrations occasionally led you to declare, "If we keep being so loud, they're going to kick me out!"

Well, the staff of Cogir of Glenwood Place never did kick you out. They didn't kick us out either. Instead, after each such event, your caregivers reassured you and us in both words and actions that they loved seeing you embraced by such enthusiastic devotion and loving energy.

We who miss you already find some comfort in the image of the joyful reunion you have longed for with your beloved husband of 30 years, Tom, Sr.; your parents, Howard and Florence; your brothers Howard and Michael; and numerous friends. Ah, what those encounters must have been like!

Not surprisingly, we've been talking about you a lot. Throughout the stories (mostly true) and the memories (fairly accurate…we think), myriad qualities weave a remarkable tapestry of the beautiful woman you are. Devout, dedicated, faithful, integral, gracious, sassy, smart, funny, loving, warm, wacky, supportive, welcoming, and thrifty. You were green before green was cool. How many tons of material did you personally repurpose, reuse, and recycle? How many outfits did you excitedly rescue from Goodwill and garage sales to clothe yourself and your brood of fast-growing children, some of whom refused to wear them? Despite any pushback we may have given you for your cost-cutting and environmentally friendly ways, you were sweet, kind, and generous. You were also helpful, curious, studious, consistent and reliable. You appreciated a good joke. During this last year, you regularly proclaimed that laughter was the best medicine. "Just make me laugh," you would say as you chuckled. Your choice to laugh in the face of difficulty won you many fans at Glenwood and solidified your legend in the family.

Your lifelong devotion to God inspired countless people. You lived your Catholic faith through Christ-like actions at least as much as you did by daily attending Mass and praying the rosary for people you love. From the time your children began clinging to your skirts, we witnessed your servant's heart through countless hours of service, especially to the elderly and the Church. For years, you served as a Eucharistic Minister with joy and humility at St. James Cathedral in Seattle and brought communion to infirmed people who could not make it to Sunday Mass. We also marveled at your ongoing service to St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Renton which you continued supporting with time, energy, and love long after your official job as a secretary to the rectors ended.

During the last year of your life, you feared you were not doing enough to serve God. We reminded you of what you had taught us through word and deed since we were young: every time you treat your caregivers with genuine love and kindness, you serve God. The stream of caregivers who came to say tearful and heartfelt goodbyes to you during your last few days on this Earth affirmed that you served your Lord well even beyond your final breath. Thank you for modeling love and faith through service.

Your five children remember coming home from school to find you ironing and cutting coupons while watching General Hospital. We deeply appreciate that you prioritized us, that you intentionally did not work outside the home until all of us were in school. Even then, you made sure to be home when we got off the bus and charged through the front door.

You prized education, ours and your own. We love the resilience and dedication you modeled in pursuit of your BA in Business Administration. You began at the University of Detroit as a young woman and then set your studies aside to help your family. Years later, while raising your own kids and helping Dad-Grandpa start and run his law practice, you completed your degree in 1987 at City University of Seattle.

We knew you as a great traveling companion, too. These adventures began when you and Dad took us camping to some magnificent places in the U.S.: Gettysburg, Mount Rainier, Deception Pass, Kalaloch, Crater Lake, and the Oregon coast. You even drove all five kids - Kathleen only
five months old - in our Ford Galaxy 500 to Ketchikan, Alaska. Amazing…and a bit wackadoodle!

After you traded the pop-up camper for a sailboat named Tomfoolery and its dinghy Skullduggery in tow, we explored the spectacular Salish Sea of the Pacific Northwest. Of course, your love of boating began long before you had kids, even before meeting Dad-Grandpa. We remember your stories of the Byrne family cottage on the northern shore of Lake Erie, especially the rowboat you loved. On the Tomfoolery, you served skillfully as First Mate, cook, and tour guide to kids, cousins, friends, and grandkids on Lake Washington and the Puget Sound, and through the wondrous San Juan Islands, Desolation Sound, and Princess Louisa Inlet. Some of those adventures lasted for weeks at a time. We still remember you and Dad-Grandpa topside and us kids below deck as you guided us across the tumultuous passage of the Straits of Juan de Fuca in the rain and high seas. What an adventurer you were.

Stories of your global traveler self, accompanied by the walking stick carved from a tree branch from your backyard, well, they're a significant part of the legend you are. In fact, after sleeping in an Ireland hostel bunk bed with Emily and couchsurfing there with Ram, your granddaughter
posted this challenge on social media along with a photo of you riding a bicycle through the Irish countryside: "If my 77-year-old grandmother can do this, what's your excuse?!"

We cheered you when you flew to Rome with a group from St. James Cathedral several years after Dad-Grandpa died. You were a catalyst for our family becoming a gaggle of globetrotters. You also traveled to Lourdes and Fatima with St. James. Several of us treasured time with you in Rome and Assisi in 2007. You and Kathleen ventured to Ireland, including the Marian Shrine at Knock where you had a beautiful experience despite a crotchety bed and breakfast host.

You returned to Italy and Ireland with John. Before that other Ireland trip with Emily and Ram, you told Laurie, "They don't want to travel with their grandmother." You were a smart woman, but you were wrong about that. Emily and Ram will tell those stories for the rest of their lives. You traveled extensively stateside, too. With John, you explored the Freedom Trail in and around Boston. With Michael, you dove into Yorktown, Williamsburg, New Orleans, and New York City. You hiked with Tom in the mountains of the Northwest. You and Laurie met Michael at Crater Lake in Oregon where you struggled through your laughter to climb into "Tank," Michael's massive Jeep.

Wow! Generations of your descendants will certainly hear these tales. We refuse to guarantee that the Irish in us won't exaggerate the details a tad. Not that you need that. Some of us are experiencing jet lag flashbacks just reading this list. We're also curious if you have any unused frequent flier miles stashed somewhere….

Considering the fullness of your life, there are far too many memorable tales to tell in this short space. However, the following list of titles for some of those stories offers a glimpse into the richness of your time walking this Earth as a child of God:

● "Row, row, row your boat": Camping with Morai in the PNW
● Buses & bunk beds throughout Ireland
● How to make plans with your grandma when she's too busy for you
● Lunchtime Reubens: A review
● "Wake up! Grandma is here with Captain Crunch!!"
● Bailey's Irish cream
● Morai leading a flock of turkeys to the barn!
● The time Grandma saved my ass so I could study abroad: a memoir
● Tips and tricks for saving money on groceries
● The great sleeping curtain - tips and tricks by Grandma Mac
● "Shit! Don't ever let me hear you kids say that word!"
● The Life of Brian and other Blasphemy
● A rosary for every occasion
● Warrior of Love: My Mom's Life of Service
● High tea at the Empress Hotel
● Cantaloupe and Cottage Cheese on a Summer Day
● The great sandwich debacle of 1979
● A study of friendship: Mom's eclectic band of brothers and sisters
● "Okay, love, I'll let you go": The quick ending phone calls with grandma
Obituary for Laura-Mom-Grandma-Morai
● Priority of showing up: Grandma always coming down for any event or function
● Captain Crunch, because, duh...grandkids
● Knowing who your greeting card is from because Grandma's handwriting is so distinct and elegant.
● When you're having a hard time getting to sleep, pray the rosary
● How to save contacts in your phone that no one can decipher. Not even you...
● Grandma kissed the Blarney Stone
● "I'm thankful for texting. No, really!"

As we say goodbye for now, we imagine the following scene. People might have dismissed it as too Hollywood by far if the quotations had not been drawn directly from letters you and Dad wrote to each other long ago. So, your reunion might have unfolded like this….

Just before you left this wonderful and complex world, Tom-Dad-Grandpa cornered the Creator at St. Peter's Gate. "Oh God," Tom exclaimed, "I love her so. I need her voice. I need her close. I need to know her thoughts. I need to know what desires swell within her woman's heart that I may answer them…." He then turned toward Earth and said, "Oh Laura, Laura my lovely princess, I need your kiss, I need your smile. Please, my love, whisper to me across the many miles." And in the next breath, when you arrived in Heaven, after Jesus had said, "Well done, my faithful one," and released you from a long embrace, you turned toward your beloved husband and said "Darling, I could never adequately express in words how happy and filled with love for you I am. If it was all a dream, please wake me up gently."

Ah, what a reunion you must be having. Our hearts are breaking and smiling at the same time. Rest assured, though, the sun of our happiness for you outshines the moon of our sadness.

For us, you have been and always will be Grách, which is Gaelic for loved, beloved. Thank you thank you, thank you, Laura-Mom-Grandma-Morai. Give Tom-Dad-Grandpa love-filled hugs from all of us. We'll see you in a while.

Love always,
Your children and our beloved spouses, Tom (Rebecca), Laurie (Rich), Michael, John (Megan), and Kathleen (Ken); your grandchildren Corey (Katie), Emily (Javi), Ram, Eric (Alisha), Sienna, Paige, McKenzie, Jacob (Priscilla), Sage (Michael), Kenny and Lizzie; and your great-grandchildren Oliver, Finn, Knox, and Moxa.

Funeral Mass
St. Joseph Catholic Church
400 S Andresen Rd, Vancouver, WA 98661
Thursday July 10, 2025, 11 AM, Rosary 10:30

Internment with brief ceremony
Tahoma National Cemetery
18600 SE 240th St, Kent, WA 98042
Friday July 11, 2025, 11:15 AM

In lieu of flowers, Laura and her family invite you to contribute to the ongoing work of her beloved Blessed Father Solanus Casey.

Visit solanuscasey.org/donation/ to donate.