Community celebrates life of Bay Area mom, 3-time double lung transplant recipient

MORAGA, Calif. - Under a clear blue sky, not long after the late summer sun had parted the early afternoon clouds, more than 500 people gathered in a wooded amphitheater in Moraga to celebrate a beautiful, hard-fought life.

Laura Zellmer died on July 28. And on Sept.13, her tight-knit community came together to remember the beloved mother, wife, daughter, sister, and courageous advocate who had, time and time again, beaten the odds. 

At 51, Zellmer’s life was paradoxically both cut short and extended. 

Her full and vibrant life was extended through the love and unfaltering support of her family, her will to survive, the advances of modern science, and the unstintingly generous gifts of three donors who chose to give others life when theirs ended.

Three double lung transplants 

Zellmer was a rare three-time double lung transplant recipient and lived with cystic fibrosis throughout her whole life.

Timeline:

In March 2016, she received her first set of donated lungs. 

But then in 2018, her lung function began to decline due to chronic rejection.  And in November of that year, she underwent her second transplant. Both of those high-risk procedures took place at UCSF Medical Center.  

Complications led to her third double lung transplant in January 2022. That one took place at Duke University in North Carolina, which has a world-renowned lung transplant program and specializes in complicated cases. She was one of about 20 people in the U.S. to have ever undergone three double lung transplants. Because of the care she was receiving at Durham before and after the transplant, the whole process took her away from her home for a year.  

Throughout her journey and her fight to keep breathing, Zellmer sought to bring awareness about CF, promote organ donorship, and find ways to help others. 

Making a difference, leaving her mark

She co-produced and co-directed a 2014 documentary called "Breathe in Life" with close friend and filmmaker Amy Janes. In the film, she chronicled her journey living with cystic fibrosis as she vulnerably displayed her struggles and also celebrated precious gifts like motherhood that she did not take for granted.   

In 2019, following her second transplant, she and her husband, Kevin Zellmer, established the non-profit "Strong and Salty" to promote organ donation, support transplant research, and help patients and their families "by taking away financial worries, decreasing wait times for organs, and increasing life expectancy post-transplant," according to the foundation’s website. 

As part of her wishes, she asked that "Strong and Salty" continue her vision of helping others on a similar path. Her goals included working with UCSF to raise enough money to help establish housing for people who need to live close to the hospital as they undergo the painstaking and arduous care required post-transplant. 

She gave back to her community wherever she could.

And her community took note and, in turn, did what it could to be there for this inspiring force.

They organized a campaign to demonstrate their support through Team Laura t-shirts, which were emblazoned with a pair of lungs. They came out in droves in the fall of 2018, to the Moraga Commons Park, donning their Laura shirts for a group photo to show their love as she awaited her second set of lungs.   

And during the COVID pandemic, it was Team Laura face masks they wore, with the money raised through selling the masks going toward her foundation.

Zellmer’s strength and resilience were celebrated and recognized widely, from little league games to blood and organ donor sign-up drives. 

Celebration of Laura's life

So, that Saturday, as the community had done so many times before, it came together once again for this woman who inspired so many. Those in attendance included members of her medical team over the many years she received treatment, as well as friends and family from across the country, as stories were told of her remarkable life.

The backstory:

She was an infant when she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, which, during the 1970s, had minimal treatment options and was often considered a fatal pediatric disease. As a teen, she understood that the life expectancy of those living with CF was somewhere in their 20s. The genetic condition causes sticky, thick mucus to build up in the body and compromises the lungs, digestive system, and other organs. 

Her mother was a staunch advocate for her baby and described how, when doctors sought answers for the child’s failure to thrive, she feared her daughter was struggling with the then relatively little-known cystic fibrosis. She had read about the illness in her Dr. Spock baby care book. 

At the podium, Mom Anne Cryan shared about the early years of her daughter’s life. She spoke of bringing her precocious baby girl to her appointments, where instantly she won over the doctors caring for her. She described the process of clapping the baby’s chest and back multiple times a day, sometimes in 40-minute-long stretches, to clear her airways, and how her daughter’s love for books blossomed then, as the mother would find reading to her during this unpleasant procedure helped her child get through it.  

Cryan spoke of the journey into adolescence when her daughter had to learn to become independent in her own care, which involved being diligent and careful with how she treated her body, and eventually would include taking more than 70 pills a day, along with hours of dialysis.

The mother spoke of the conscious decision to encourage her then-teenage daughter to begin going to her doctor's appointments on her own, so she could learn how to advocate for herself. She spoke of the scary step of furthering that independence as she and her husband sent their daughter off to college, away from home, and then later watched her travel the world, all while knowing she had to manage and stay on top of her health condition on her own.

Her two sisters, Kate Cryan and Joanna Cryan Aiken, each went up to the podium to share their stories of the music-loving, theatrical, and fun middle sis whose health struggles were a part of their normal day-to-day in the family, the coughing fits from CF a part of the soundtrack of their lives — and her light that eclipsed it all.  

Each with their own special relationship with their sister, they spoke of her positive attitude, her thirst for adventure that sent her traveling to Chile and through Europe, her love for good books, and her special expertise in celebrity news.  

Her closest friends from different eras of her life also spoke before loved ones, sharing stories that brought as many tears as laughter. The stories varied, but all had common themes, as Zellmer was remembered for her illuminating presence, giving spirit, her ability to make those around her feel special, and her powerful gift of bringing a community together.

They spoke of her fashion sense, noting she never came across a hat she didn’t love. They remembered that time she got to interview 1990s rock star Dave Matthews, after winning a contest on a radio station. 

During her 20s, when she came up with a great idea to have a joint birthday celebration at a San Francisco bar with another December-born friend, she organized a plan to simultaneously hold a "Toys for Tots" gift drive as part of their birthday bash.  

They recalled how even as late as last winter, when her health was declining, she was out there helping to plan the high school football senior night for her son’s graduating teammates. 

And time and time again, her loved ones spoke of her laugh, that unmistakable, echoing, rolling laugh that filled a room, one that often would evolve into a coughing fit due to her illness. But that never seemed to stop her from expressing her joy in a way that made others around her join her in laughter. 

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Her in-laws spoke of the early days when she met the man with whom she would end up spending 21 years of marriage.

It was at a party in San Francisco. The two instantly hit it off, and at the end of the night, she took her future husband’s phone, put her number in it, and confidently told him, "You will call me." 

Proud mom

Of all the roles she held in life, there was none she was more proud of and none she treasured more than being a mother to her son Everett.

Zellmer’s son, who turned 18 just weeks after his mother’s passing, was the joy of her life. 

The son bravely stood in front of the crowd and shared about the strong woman he admired, laughed with, and profoundly missed. He recounted times he and she got lost in laughter, describing these precious snapshots suspended in time, moments that he would forever cherish. 

For his 18th birthday, he and his two maternal aunts commemorated Zellmer with tattoos. 

The son’s left forearm now marked with a pair of lungs that look like two wings, connected with a heart with an "L" in the middle, the emblem of "Team Laura." 

About a month after his mother’s passing, the Campolindo High School football player would score the first touchdown of the season in the game against Granada High School in Livermore, an event that no doubt his mother would have been over the moon proud of, an emotional moment that moved his coaches and team, as they held her in remembrance. 

Community outpouring 

For his mother’s memorial, Everett’s teammates showed up in force to support the young man and celebrate the woman who helped shape him. 

Others who showed up were many of her old-time classmates, those she grew up with in the same town where she would raise her own son, including Bay Area artist Zach Rogue. He sang moving renditions of Zellmer’s favorites, "Blackbird" by the Beatles and "Best Thing for Me" by Release the Songbird.

Her reason 

Kevin Zellmer honored his wife and shared with the crowd that Everett was her reason. Their son was at the center of her will to remain on earth for as long as she possibly could. 

"Of all the joys in Laura’s life, Everett, you were the brightest. She was thrilled to be your mom, and she was amazing at it. I truly believe the reason she made it as far as she did was because of you," the husband said as he addressed his son. "She loved you with every bit of her being. And now, you will always have a guardian angel."

Kevin Zellmer shared with the audience how, when he and his wife first went out to Duke for what would be her third transplant, the surgeon asked her why she wanted to go through this grueling, onerous process again.

The husband said that she convinced the doctor that she was the right candidate for a third double lung transplant by simply telling him all about her son, "and how she would fight as long and as hard as possible for him," the husband said, adding, "The doctor was sold instantly."

And interwoven in the stories the husband told about the beautiful and adventurous life he shared with her were deep-felt, moving words of gratitude to the many people who were there for their family and unceasingly demonstrated their support.  

Celebration of community

In many ways, the gathering was as much a celebration of his wife’s life as it was a celebration of her community.

He said in her final days, he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and the many messages from people far and wide thanking her for serving as a light and an inspiration to them.

He said almost a thousand messages poured in, and he read every single one of them to her. 

"Those letters revealed the incredible depth and reach of Laura’s impact. I always knew she touched people’s lives, but I didn’t realize how far it extended," Zellmer acknowledged, adding, "Over and over, people told stories of how her courage helped them through their own difficult moments. Some had never told her before, but they carried her as a quiet role model." 

And nearly every note included mentions of her signature laugh and unforgettable smile. 

"Her smile was so big it stretched ear to ear," Zellmer said, and added with levity, "One of the first party tricks she showed me was that her smile was so big she could put her whole fist in her mouth. It was a proud moment.

And the husband remembered back when they started out their life together as a young couple in love, and said they knew it was going to be hard managing a life with a disease that had no cure. 

But he also candidly acknowledged how they truly had no idea how incredibly difficult it would get. There were struggles beyond what he could have imagined, and there was the heartbreak of saying goodbye.

"We knew our path would be different. We were naïve about how hard it might be," he said. 

But Zellmer professed that if you’d asked if he’d do it all over again, without a doubt, without hesitation, it would be a resounding yes. 

"Even then, we knew it would be worth it. If you had shown us our lives together and what the next 24 plus years would bring—the joy, the struggles, the beauty, the heartbreak—and asked if it would be enough, we would have said yes," Zellmer said. "We lived a truly wonderful life."

In her obituary, her family shared how throughout her life, she didn’t let her illness hold her back, saying, "Despite the hardship, she lived boldly, laughed freely, and loved deeply."

It’s notable that she died much in the same way she lived. In her husband's message to her friends and family to announce the heartbreak of her passing, he wrote that in her final days, she was "surrounded by family and friends, not in silence, but in an atmosphere filled with love, energy, and admiration." 

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