I met Laura in 2012, when I worked with her sister Natalie at Rise Real Estate.
I remember Natalie mentioning her “perfect little sister” many times before I got to meet her, and as soon as I finally did, I instantly understood what Natalie meant. Laura was perfect in so many ways, and I’m happy to share some memories I have of her here.
Laura helped out during many of our busiest seasons at Rise– with selling, leasing, move-in… honestly, everywhere and anywhere we needed an extra hand, Laura was there to help.
One day, Laura and I went to measure a Sales Trailer that we were going to be renovating for an upcoming building we were launching… it was my first memory with her, just the two of us. I will never forget how after we were done what we came to do, she randomly said something like, “No wonder Natalie loves you so much, you are so smart.”… I honestly had no idea where that came from, or why she chose to tell me that at that moment… but I remember it putting the biggest smile on my face. The beginning of so many of the sweetest compliments she’d give me over the years.
Lucky for me, when I started my new job at truLOCAL in 2016, Ryan’s company Symetric created our company’s website… and I got to see Laura even more often during our weekly meetings at their office in St.Catharine’s. We never missed an opportunity to go out for lunch with the Symetric team after our meetings (she was a massive foodie, just like me – her and Derek always picked the trendiest downtown spots to hit up), she often offered to share her desk with me (or give her desk up entirely) so that I’d have a space to work, and when it came time for truLOCAL’s episode to debut on Dragons’ Den… Laura made it the most special evening we could have imagined. We were spending that evening at Symetric, preparing and fully expecting the night to be too busy work-wise for any crazy “celebrating”. The world was about to watch our small start-up pitch on TV, and to say that we were nervous all day would be an understatement. We walked into Symetric… to find their entire team, a buffet of food, tons of drinks, and massive balloon letters spelling out “TRULOCAL” in their front lobby. I instantly fought back tears seeing the level of effort they had gone to, to make sure that our stressful evening would be as fun and special as possible. I fought back even more tears later that evening, when Natalie showed up. Laura knew how much it would mean to me to see Natalie, without me having to say a word.
Even when our weekly meetings were no longer a thing… Laura never once lost touch. She was always the first to like or comment on photos on social media, to send a funny meme, to celebrate exciting milestones, or just to strike up a conversation. I always felt like she was my biggest cheerleader in life, I honestly never knew why or how I got so lucky to know her.
Standing next to 300+ people at Laura’s Celebration of Life, I realized that every single person who knew her… felt the exact same way that I did. She had this way of making you feel like the most important person in the world. I don’t know how one individual could possibly have that much love to give… but Laura Trinder did.
Evening during her toughest days, I never once heard her complain. She would tell me about the latest crappy news, and follow it up with “Anyways, onwards!” or “I can’t wait to visit BC when I beat this cancer.”
Even during her toughest days, there wasn’t an ounce of resentment in her… she continued to celebrate every exciting moment with her friends and family, she was still everybody’s biggest cheerleader.
And even during her toughest days, she thought of Ryan and her girls more than anything else. I remember how upset she was about Kenna hurting her foot and not being able to be with her at the hospital, and her mentioning how much she hates seeing Ryan’s heart hurting.
She was truly one of the kindest, most selfless, people in this world.
I only knew a fraction of the Laura her close friends and family knew, but I am a better person for having known her.