My reading from the Celebration of Life

Hi, for those of you that don’t know me, I am Leigh Campbell.

Laura and I met on the first day of 9th grade in the cafeteria. During our high-school years we had many adventures. It’s odd the things you remember, in particular I think the first time I knew we were going to be great friends we were sitting on the kitchen floor eating bon-bons and tossing the carton back and forth. Of course, we had many conversations regarding the mystery of boys (minus the period of time she was dating my brother, ICK). Lots of moments laughing and sometimes crying at both the big and small events of adolescents.

One time… at band camp - just kidding… - Laura and I took it upon ourselves to come up with a pennant routine and asked the music teacher if we could lead the 9th grade marching band in a local parade.

Laura and I were good friends until we graduated high school and then we became sisters in all the ways that count.

Laura was a great listener and only offered advice when people asked for it. I learned the value however not the skill of that, it’s a work in progress. Free advice after…

Laura was able to hold her faith close to her even in a world where many, myself included, doubt.

Laura could leave a perfect bite mark in a cucumber slice.

Laura while not a passionate cook, taught me a few great recipes including Simon and Garfunkel Chicken and Buttermilk Waffles.

When I visited last summer I had the chance to join Laura and Makenzie, to help them care for all the wonderful cats and kittens at Simply Cats. It really clicked how fitting that volunteer passion was when I was looking through my many photos of Laura throughout the years. There was a persistent theme: Cats. I have more photos of her with cats in them than anything or anyone else. I don’t even remember all the cats in the photos, yet I am confident that Laura could not only tell you their names, she could also tell you how unique each of them was.

I was fortunate enough to spend the 3 days and nights prior to Laura’s passing with her at the hospital. We colored. We made a bucket list of things that she still hadn’t done. She always wanted to get two kittens and name them Dory and Smudge after characters from one of her favorite childhood books, Dory the Teenage Witch.

Laura wanted to go up in a hot air balloon.

Laura still hoped to visit Costa Rica, Tahiti, Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

When we talked about plans for her celebration of life - she made me laugh with her song choice of ‘only the good die young’ and thought it would be fun for everyone to wear her favorite color green (sorry if any of you missed that memo).. I had this weird thought that we should take a picture so she could see that we listened.

Laura wanted more laughter than tears today.

Laura and I had a solid cry when she shared her hopes and dreams for her family. Laura thinks Tory should eventually live by the water and have a boat. She guesses that if he wants to he could get remarried …. at some point.

Laura wants Makenzie to feel peace in her own skin and to remember that she can ALWAYS change her mind.

Laura wants Samantha to share her emotions (at least with 1 or 2 people) and to find something to smile about each day.

Laura shared a few things with me that I didn’t know. Crazy how you can still learn new things about people who you have known your whole life.

Laura’s favorite water animal is a jellyfish and her favorite land animal is a panda bear.

Laura’s favorite thing to sew was PJ’s

Laura’s favorite time of day was early afternoon to the hour before dawn.

Being able to have a few last sleepovers to laugh, talk and cry with her at the end of our time together is a memory I will hold in my heart until I join Laura, her dad John, my mom Barb, and the grandmas at the most incredible animal shelter in the sky.  

One of my favorite memories of Laura Jamison

As young twenty-something’s we were visiting my Great Uncle Al and his wife Florence, in the mountains in western North Carolina. Uncle Al was known for his sense of humor and always having something to say. The additional players/witnesses were, my mother, father, and grandmother.

The ladies had evicted the men from their kingdom in the kitchen and we had settled down out on the front porch to enjoy the scenery and banter about. Dad was to one side of the sliding door, Al to the other, and I had the unique perspective to be looking into the house from between them.

Laura was on her way out to talk with us but turned her head to hear something from one of the ladies. She kept walking during this brief interaction and as a result walked into the screen door. She hit it with enough force that she popped it off the tracks and it bounced out onto the porch. Without any effort she caught it from both edges with her outstretched arms and promptly made a 180 degree turn, gently placing the screen in its approximate position, just backwards. She let go, made sure it would stay upright, dusted her hands off, then turned around to deliver her message that dinner was almost ready. We three just watched this and as Laura turned to my Uncle Al, she caught his open mouthed and shocked expression. Her response to this look was “What, I’m a blonde!”

Now done delivering her message, she grasped the screen and spun it 180, backed herself back into the house, placing the screen in its approximate location again, and walked back to the ladies in the kitchen.

A few seconds passed before Uncle Al regained his faculties and nearly fell out of his chair; laughing so hard he began crying. This was the first, and only time I ever saw someone get the better of Uncle Al, and left him speechless in the process.

Laura has always been the biggest proponent of collecting and sharing “blonde jokes” that I ever met, and this was just a natural extension of her living her life authentically, without regret and being true to herself. This is a long story for something that consisted of essentially four spoken words, yet I am not sure I have ever had four simple words be so impactful in a single moment.

Remembering and sharing this story has reminded me over the years to be true to myself and live my life in a way that no apology is necessary to anyone, especially to myself.

I will always love Laura for that lesson and all the other moments of laughter, joy, and friendship we have shared since we were teenagers.

Scot Hall - Friend and Brother to Laura & Tory Jamison - Forever!