Lauren Diane Larson

January 29, 1948 - December 7, 2020

Lauren died suddenly of heart failure, at home with her husband Ty by her side, at 5:03 am on December 7th, 2020. She spent Sunday the 6th with family and enjoyed a visit from her precious granddaughters. Lauren went to bed early looking forward to Christmas vacation and more time with her family. Unfortunately, she had a major heart attack from which she did not recover. This was a shock to everyone who knew her and devastating to her family.

Lauren is survived by her husband, Ty Yurgelevic, her son, Jacob Larson (partner Helen Wyman) her daughter Kate Larson (husband, Edgar Soto Gomez) and their two daughters, Zaira Soto Larson and Alexa Soto Larson. She also is survived by her sisters; Karen Sutherlin and Maren Lundgren (husband Lennart) and her brother, Orion Larson (wife Donna Heberle). Her extended family lives in the greater bay area except for Maren who has lived in Denmark with her family for the last 20 years. Daughter of Marie and Orion Larson, Lauren was born in San Francisco. Growing up in the Sunset District, she attended Parkside Elementary, Hoover Jr. High, Lincoln High, and City College. She grew up a city girl, but loved summers with her grandmother Sigrid Frank at her farmhouse in Concord, which included many sleepovers with cousins from the area. She worked for Southern Pacific for 29 years (where she met her future husband in 1970). They were married on September 15th, 1972 and had an extended honeymoon traveling in Europe for three months. In 1973, they settled in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland which was a welcome reprieve from her years of fog in the Sunset. Lauren left Southern Pacific when the railroad merged with the Union Pacific in June, 1997. After a variety of temporary jobs, at age 52, she began looking for meaningful work again.

At her first volunteer job while still in high school, Lauren worked doing child care for Canon Kipp Community Center in S.F. Ironically, she returned to that vocation when she opened “Home Away from Home” in 2001, a home day care for children ages two to five. The name says it all. Lauren created not a “home” per se but a homelike environment in which kids could learn to problem solve, grow and thrive. Many parents (who admitted they didn’t have a clue) thanked her for potty training their kids. Other parents used Lauren’s mantra “let me help you to have a turn” between waring siblings. Her genuine love of kids was demonstrated daily and she was rewarded by parents who thanked her profusely and often. As one parent put it “I never once worried about leaving my kids in her care. What a beautiful gift to give to a parent.” Lauren was going to retire in the summer of 2021 when all her current kids would be off preparing for kindergarten. Tragically, that dream was cut short.

Lauren was a believer in community. Two of her most rewarding volunteer jobs were working as a counselor at Planned Parenthood and as a classroom assistant for both of her children at Chabot Elementary School. She was registrar for the Rockridge Soccer Club (now East Bay United) from 1984-1990 and coached her daughter’s U-8 soccer team. In 1991, she was given the Gino Chegia (founder of the soccer club) Award for outstanding service. Until Covid 19, she watched her oldest granddaughter carry on her family’s soccer tradition. Dogs were an important fixture in Lauren’s life. She persuaded Ty to adopt their first dog, Talullah, a German shorthair/ lab mix in 1972. Three other dogs followed. Her last dog, Rooney (named after soccer player Wayne Rooney), a basset/ American bulldog mix, was singularly attached to Lauren. Today, Rooney shadows Ty’s every move, sensing a major abyss in his world, not knowing quite what to do about it.

Lauren will be interred at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. Due to Covid 19, there will not be a funeral. For information regarding the celebration of Lauren’s life, please email: ellen. koch@gmail.com. Donations may be made to the following charities: The Alameda County Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, Doctors without Borders and Planned Parenthood.