Laura M. Douglas

Laura Marie (Mikel) Douglas, of Holt, Michigan, left this world on Sunday, December 4, 2022, after having spent 62 years making it a better place. Born at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, on August 11, 1960, to Marilyn and the late Jim Mikel, Laura spent her life helping others, including a long teaching career that included Catholic School, Boysville of Michigan, and Detroit Public Schools, where she taught Special Education through their Early Intervention Program. Laura loved to read, adored the Arizona Desert, lived for music, and cherished her many pets: Peaches, Cracker, Victor & Alex, Tristan, Cooper, and current fuzzball of love, Miss Winnie.

Laura met the love of her life, David Rhys Douglas, in December 1995, and it took all his powers of persuasion to convince her to marry him, which she finally did on July 28, 2001. After 21 years of loving matrimony, Laura made a peaceful transition as she slept snugly in her bed.

She leaves to cherish her memory bewildered, yet grateful friends and family now looking for ways to pass on the wisdom and kindness she shared with them. Among them, her loving husband David, baby sister Jennifer (Orjiakor) Isiogu, baby brother John Mikel, mom Marilyn Mikel, long-time family friend Sandra Settergren, stepmom Kaye (Jim, deceased) Mikel, mother-in-law Mary (Fred, deceased) Douglas, sister-in-law Lauren (Tomas) Stromberg, niece Leila Granfield, nephew Christopher Granfield, and scores of aunts, uncles, cousins, dear friends, and surrogate nieces and nephews.

The light of the world seems dimmer in her absence, but that’s an illusion: the world is brighter because she was here.

There will be a memorial service for Laura on Sunday, December 18, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. at the Estes-Leadley Holt/Delhi Chapel, 2121 N. Cedar St., Holt, MI 48842. The family encourages donations to the Capital Area Humane Society in Laura’s name in lieu of flowers.