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Letter to the editor

In her care, family and 2-year-olds all thrived

By ANDREW MEACHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published January 1, 2008

Every year in mid November, Scott and Laurie Sue Mourning had the same argument. She wanted to put up Christmas decorations. He wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving.

She always won. It was the natural order of things.

This year, Ms. Mourning hung a pine tree with super-sized ornaments, so it looked just like a Christmas tree. She covered the inside furniture in red and white.

It was a great Christmas, one of the best. Then it became the worst. Ms. Mourning died on Thursday of an embolism. She was 32.

Colleagues at Clearwater KinderCare, where Ms. Mourning was a director, remember her as a leader who put children first.

"If there was a situation in an adjacent center where someone was going to be out on leave, or a situation where they needed her expertise, she was the first one to say, 'I'll help,'" said Julie Dufaux, a regional director for KinderCare. "She would offer it rather than wait to be asked."

Ms. Mourning especially enjoyed communing with 2-year-olds, her husband said, and brought larger-than-life teaching methods home with her. At Easter, she arranged for bunnies throughout the house. Halloween brought giant spider webs and tombstones to the yard. Clowns showed up at birthday parties.

Ms. Mourning liked chick flicks and thrillers, fishing with her dad and buying lots of shoes.

"I couldn't even watch action movies," said Scott Mourning, who owns a taxicab company. "At Blockbuster, if I'd pick up Spider-Man 3 and look at it, she'd say, 'Oh, that's for after I go to sleep, I guess.'"

It was easy to do what she wanted. And Ms. Mourning wasn't shy about keeping her household in line.

"She wanted people to be the best they can be," her husband said. "If they weren't, they heard about it."

Ms. Mourning loved shopping trips, where children and parents from her job frequently ran into her. Most of the time, she chatted with them or just listened.

She drank rarely but loved to play the slots at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. She had the touch, her husband said, and could win more with $25 than he could with $200.

Ms. Mourning awoke early on Thursday. Scott Mourning thought her breathing sounded ragged. She walked to the bathroom. He heard her fall. She did not survive the ambulance trip to the hospital.

Ms. Mourning's death shocked colleagues.

"It's basically devastated everyone," said Kellie Cleland, a fellow KinderCare director. "She wasn't done yet. She had so much more to give and more to offer."

The Mournings usually waited until after the new year to pack up their Christmas decorations. This year, Scott took all the decorations down early.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or 813 661-2431.

BIOGRAPHY:

Laurie Sue Mourning

Born: Nov. 26, 1975.

Died: Dec. 27, 2007.

Survivors: husband, Scott Mourning; children, Nicole and Ian; parents, Douglas and Wanda Hutchison; brother, John Joseph Hutchison; nieces, Ashley and Autumn Hutchison; nephew, Joseph Hutchison; grandmother, Martha Hutchison.

Service: Held on Monday at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home.

[Last modified December 31, 2007, 21:10:16]