Laura Jeanne Meins
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.
16 Responses to “Laura Jeanne Meins”
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Dear Sister, You were much loved and I will miss you. You were a survivor. You have finally found the peace that was so elusive in this life. Know that you will always be in my heart.
Dear Laura,
I miss you already. Your quiet strength, incredible resiliency, and sweet smile were a comfort to me. You made a real and lasting difference to the peer movement in King County, being a pioneer who attend the very first peer counselor training in the county, your work with NAMI GS, on the supported employment reviews, and most important to me, a member and chair of Voices of Recovery and the Recovery Advisory Committee for many years. Truly, you walked the revolutionary road, working your own recovery and being a champion for change within the system and with your peers. I was glad to become friends with you 🙂
thank you for sharing your life story with me. I will keep you in my heart as well.
Dearest Aunt Laura,
Thank you so much for being a steady influence throughpout my life. The stregth you carried allowed me to be strong. The kindness that you showed towards other is and will continue to be an inspiration to me. Your work in encouraging people to see the person and not the disease will make a continued impact in the communities you lived.
Love you much and wishing you peace
Laura was my stepsister and I remember her sweet smile and wonderful happy spirit when we were growing up-when I moved away we lost touch as a family-I hope that she has finally found some peace and will rest eternally with her parents and her sister Valerie.
Charlene please accept my deepest condolences and love and Aloha-
When I first began volunteering at NAMI Greater Seattle, Laura trained me on the help line phones and she was a hard act to follow. She taught me a lot about the process along with how to make a difference. Her knowledge of resources and ability to be a calm voice in a storm was inspiring.
We lost a jewel who gave so much.
Thank you Laura, for all that you did to enrich the lives of others. You may be gone but not forgotten.
Laura was an inspiration to me and others. I looked up to her as a big sister and friend. I love you sis and miss you dearly. You will be truly missed. She was an awesome advocate for all she would do anything to help another. Prayers going out to her friends and family.
Dearest Laura,
You were my closest and most trusted friend. I will miss you the rest of my life. We had a friendship that no one but the two of us will ever understand, and I guess that is okay with me. You dried a million of my tears and I hope I did the same for you. I will never forget all our silly sayings and the code words we used for stuff..you were so much fun..I’m not going to say good-bye because I still feel you near me.
Love you Laura Jeanne Lu-lu Bean.
Scottie
Dear Laura
You will leave memories of your smile and your passion to serve in the Peer Movement, As we continue to make footprints into the future as Peers you will be there too. May a peace that surpass all understanding be in the lives you have left behind. Keep Smiling!!!
Words cannot express my heartfelt loss. I send my prayers to the family of such an inspiration of a person such as Laura.
Laura you will be truly missed, may the work you have done go without being forgotten. May we as peers continue stand for what Laura believed in and that truly is Peer Work….I am lost for words in hopes that in my own path of recovery something I learned from you will continue to shine.
Loving memory
Suprina
Laura’s sense of humor, her willingness to accept people as they are, and constant ability to flow with the changing tides meant a lot to me. Her calm leadership and her warm friendship enhanced my life and she will never be forgotten by me. I am so accustomed to her being here I think I will have a sense of her still being here – maybe as I reflect about how she might react to something or I go places we used to go (when I am ready). I will miss her dearly.
Laura was a really big inspiration for me in my recovery. I remember her well from her peer to peer trainings and then later when I joined King County’s Voices of Recovery. I got to know her more closely as a friend after that and then had the pleasure of working with her for a time at King County’s Ombuds Office. The impact she had on others lives and her involvement in the recovery movement was tremendous. I miss her very much.
My Laura Jeanne,
So many memories, since it has been 33 1/2 years since I first met you. I have struggled to find the correct (for me) words to express here. Conversatons we’ve had, memories of people and things from places we did the tourist thing, quotes from movies, and lyrics from songs keep running through my mind. Therefore at this time I am resorting to this line from “Star Trek The Wrath of Khan” — “I have been and always shall be your friend. Live long and prosper.” Love always, your PEEP.
I have known Laura all my life she was present at my birth and my middle name was chosen to honour her. She has always been my ‘aunt’ Laura and always will be. I may not have always been able to see her but she was always there for me growing up as a fun person to hang around and my mother Penelope Paul and I shall miss her deeply.
Thank you Laura, for your quiet, kind, and gentle leadership of the peer movement within King County. I was grateful I had the opportunity to get to know you from the supported employment reviews. You were such a great team member and you always had a good laugh when we all started getting silly at the end of a long day. I will miss you and know with all my heart that your contributions will be felt for many years to come….
I am so sorry to hear of Laura’s passing. I had the honor of getting to know her at NAMI Greater Seattle and am proud to call her a friend. She was such an inspiration to so many and had great strength in dealing with adversity. You will be greatly missed Laura!
So sad to hear of Laura’s passing , a few years late. I knew Laura as a sweet, quiet and beautiful child,my neighbor and my first babysitting experience, from the time she was around a year old, and over the next several years. I have often wondered over the years where she was and how she was doing. From other comments, I see here that she stayed sweet, loving and beautiful inside and out. What a special person to help and earn the love and respect of so many! Rest in peace Laura…I wish I had found a way to get in touch with you years ago….