William 'Bill' and Linda Laurents' Obituary
William John (Bill) Laurents and Linda F. Laurents went home with their Lord Jesus nearly one year apart in October 2023 and 2024, respectively. Bill and Linda achieved 62 years of togetherness and commitment in marriage, inspiring anyone who knew them well and some who only encountered them briefly.
Bill attended Trinity Lutheran school until grade 8, Woodrow Wilson Junior High for grade 9, and then graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1957, where he played baseball and earned a meritorious academic citation. This is not likely the only citation Bill received as a teen, as he and his very best friend, Wilson Domack, had a penchant for hunting ducks and geese on land that was being "underutilized" by its rightful owners. Linda attended Thomas Jefferson High School as well, class of 1961. Linda played the saxophone in the varsity band. She loved to tell stories about her classmates, who had names like Janis Joplin, who lived only a street or two away, G.W. Bailey of the well-known Police Academy movies, and Jimmy Johnson of Dallas Cowboys fame. Bill and Linda met at a basketball game during Linda's senior year in high school, and the two quickly became inseparable. Bill and Linda were married on July 7, 1961. The following year, Bill and Linda celebrated the birth of their first son, John Mark Laurents, and then, four short years later, Christopher Andrew joined the fold. With all the players in place as of 1966, this epic family journey was set to take a beautiful and winding course. The Laurents family lived in a small house on 5th Street in Port Arthur until 1968, when the family left Mark's meatloaf garden behind, and Bill transferred to Cargill's Houston terminal on the ship channel. The family first set up shop in an apartment in Pasadena, Texas. Bill worked by day and Linda tended to the business of the home and the boys. She would get Mark to and from school and take Chris to see the "heyplanes" land at nearby Hobby Airport. A short time later, the family would move to a new home on Lerner Drive in the North Shore area, just a stone's throw from where we will gather to celebrate their lives on October 26, 2024.
Over the next 20 years in that home on Lerner Drive, Bill and Linda would gather lifelong friends and two waves of auxiliary children, friends of both Mark and Chris. Bill played catch willingly or otherwise, taught the boys to hunt and fish, and provided PhD level lawn and garden tutelage while Linda led cub scout troops, hosted birthday parties, cooked masterfully, and provided tactical backup in the event one of the boys got into a scrum with a classmate. Bill and Linda were selfless in every sense. They took great satisfaction from family trips in the pop-up camper, attending the boys' sporting events, and spending time doing anything and everything as a family. Bill would build another wing onto that home in the mid-1980s to accommodate Linda's ailing mother, whom he loved dearly and who sadly succumbed to cancer peacefully in that very home.
In 1990, the boys grown and finding their own paths (Mark mostly), Bill accepted a promotion as a Plant Manager at Cargill's Portland, Oregon terminal. Fearlessly, Bill and Linda moved 2,250 miles from their home to start a new journey. Bill and Linda had been in their beautiful new home in Vancouver, Washington, for less than two years when Linda suffered a life-changing stroke that left her significantly compromised but by no means broken. Bill and Linda quickly adapted to this radical change in circumstance in that new environment and flourished there for a time. The pair eventually decided to return to their home in Houston, Texas, and Bill began working on plans for a new and functional home for himself and his beloved wife, Linda. Bill proudly designed and built a home wherein Linda could move and grow and do the things she had always done despite her new limitations. In 1996, Bill opted for early retirement to spend precious time by Linda's side, and thus, another journey began.
Between 1996 and 2023, Bill and Linda were as inseparable as ever before. They reconnected with old friends and made many new ones everywhere they went. Over those years, they thrived in their church homes at Lake Houston UMC and Klein UMC. Both were involved in the Emmaus community and various other outreach groups, most notably time spent playing music together in a band that would minister in venues ranging from different churches to prisons. Bill and Linda loved spending time with their grandchildren, creating countless memories from photos of kids holding fish, riding an electric buggy, mower, or bicycle, wearing a Halloween costume or a baseball uniform, to handsome and beautiful teens wearing caps and gowns. For the better part of two decades, Mimi and Pawpaw's house was ground zero, a one-stop shop for everything family.
Sadly, every beautiful story has an end.
Bill was diagnosed with esophageal and gastric cancer in 2021. The outpouring of love that followed left us speechless.
For months during the first waves of treatment, someone who loved Bill Laurents showed up in his driveway daily to drive him an hour each way to and from chemotherapy and radiation treatments while Mark or Chris remained in the home with Linda to work remotely and tend to her needs. It is important to note that these angels were not compensated for this; they did so selflessly out of service and love.
Bill demanded subsequent treatments be modified such that he could be in his home with his wife, and he, with tube feed in tow and chemo pump hanging from his neck, would transfer his wife to and from bed and bathroom. He did this because he could not imagine another way and because it was his vow. He did this until he no longer could.
From a bed in his living room covered by a blanket beautifully crafted by one of his auxiliary children, William John Laurents went home to be with his Lord Jesus on October 28, 2023, at 8:25 pm, surrounded by a family who loved him fiercely.
Linda remained in the home with Mark and or Chris intermittently and with another auxiliary child tending to her three to four times per day until New Year's Eve morning, 2023, when she was found unresponsive in her bed. Linda was transported to the hospital that morning and remained in hospital care until late February 2024. Mark, Sheri, Chris, and Carol found a facility where Linda could be well cared for near Mark's home in Pearland.
As you might imagine, Linda immediately flourished at her new assisted living community, befriending residents and workers alike and becoming the life of the party like she always had. Mark and Sheri organized a birthday bash for her in June 2024 at her new residence. The room was filled with old friends, new friends, children, grandchildren, and auxiliary children; The Geezers provided the music. Simply put, it was beautiful.
Linda Merle Ferguson Laurents, from an ICU bed in Webster, Texas, covered by that very same beautifully crafted blanket made with love by one of her auxiliary children, went home to be with her Lord Jesus on October 4, 2024, at 4 pm, surrounded by family who loved her fiercely.
Bill and Linda Laurents were preceded in death by their parents, William F. Laurents, Louise Mary Laurents, George Ferguson, and Merle Ferguson, all of Port Arthur, Texas. Bill and Linda are survived by Bill's brother, David R. Laurents, and sister, Janis Duplant; sons Mark and Chris Laurents and their wives, Sheri and Carol; and grandchildren Andrew, Jamie, Jonathan, Aaron, Jordan, Pearl, Ruby, and Mitzi.
The air will never be as rich and sweet as it was with our parents in our lives. May they rest peacefully together with our Lord Jesus always.
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