Lara was the kind of person you could spend five minutes with and feel like you had known for years. “She had a way of disarming people,” says Patrick, Lara’s husband and the person who now maintains her Instagram account, which has been converted to a tribute to Lara’s memory.

In late Spring of 2022, Lara began experiencing abdominal pain. Eventually the pain became so severe that she went to the emergency room, where she was informed she had a mass on her pancreas. It was confirmed to be stage 4 pancreatic cancer on June 30th, 2022, which had spread to both her liver and her blood. The cancer advanced very quickly, and Lara and Patrick learned that her only option was biweekly chemotherapy, which was only projected to slow the growth of her cancer. “After her third round of chemotherapy, she couldn’t leave bed for 11 days” explained Patrick, "It was killing her quality of life”. 

Upon weighing her options, they decided to halt chemotherapy and move out to Lara’s family’s ranch in California to make her as comfortable as possible. Despite the circumstances, she maintained a positive attitude, and even had a sense of humor around her situation. “She wanted to celebrate Halloween early, and since she'd lost 30 pounds to cancer and chemo—and had a lovely dark humor—she wanted to dress as skeletons together.” Patrick shared.

Lara entered hospice care soon after ending chemotherapy. Patrick recalled her telling her Dad on the phone, “Dad I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of leaving the love of my life without the love of his”. Lara eventually passed away on December 14th 2022.

Prior to her passing, Lara came across the idea of solidified remains one night while browsing the internet. “She was a night owl, she was probably searching for this”, Patrick explained. According to him, Lara didn’t love the idea of scattering her ashes, and after coming across Parting Stone she shared the idea with both her Mother and Patrick to see what they thought. Patrick recalled that her Mother loved the touchability. “You can’t put your hand in an urn of ashes, but with these you can hold and caress them,” he said, “She didn’t want to be put on a shelf and forgotten, either.” Patrick told her that he could put her in his pocket on hikes, in the saddlebag of his motorcycle on ride, or even take her to Iceland. 

Lara was a world traveler and loved adventuring. She was born in Santa Monica, spent time living in the Pacific Northwest and Guam, and traveled to a number of countries during her life, including Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Argentina. She also loved motorcycling and hiking. 

Lara’s remains resulted in 38 stones, some of which Patrick kept, and the rest he gave to his sons, Lara’s parents, her siblings and her best friends. After becoming the steward of Lara’s Instagram account, Patrick reached out to everyone that received her remains with an idea: he wanted to show that Lara was still out there adventuring, so he requested they take photos with her in different locations to share on her page. “She was always seeking adventure and new experiences, that’s why these were so perfect for her”, he explained, “If I’m hiking in a state park, someone else can be in Hawaii with her.”

Family and friends took to the idea quickly, and Lara’s account has slowly been populating with photos of her stones in different places. All of Patrick’s posts start with “I’ve been to…”, and sometimes family or friends will share a quote too. It’s a reminder to all of them to keep on living, because that’s what she would want.

Before Lara’s passing, Patrick received a text from her that read: “So much has changed dear husband, I’m sorry for this unfortunate turn of events. Please make my death mean something”. 

Through sharing photos of Lara’s solidified remains continuing to travel the world, Patrick hopes to radiate the light she gave to him to others. 

When asked about the future, Patrick told us that the intention is to keep this going. He explained that a lot of positive conversations have started from her account. “There’s not a big support group for folks who’ve lost someone to cancer at this young age, he explained, “And I’ve found some support through this account.” 

Follow @elle_mizzle on Instagram to see Lara’s continued adventures.