Devoted wife, mother also nurtured special education students
Lora Cook was an empathetic soul who drew strength from the special education students whom she devoted her life to.
“She could find something relatable with anybody, so a lot of the kids felt comfort talking to her about anything,” said her daughter Vanessa Coatley, of Charlotte, N.C. “She was very, very easy to talk to, and she kept in touch with some of the students on Zoom during the summer.”
On Aug. 8, just a little more than a week before she was due to return to her job as a special education assistant at Jefferson Middle School in Mt. Lebanon, Mrs. Cook died of suspected heart failure. She was 58.
She and her husband, Bill Cook, had been vacationing at a resort in St. Martin in the Caribbean when Mrs. Cook collapsed while swimming at what had been calm waters of
Anse Marcel Beach.
“She had been in the water only about a minute. The back of her hair wasn’t even wet,” said her heartbroken husband, who immediately rushed into the water, then attempted CPR with bystanders for more than 30 minutes. “We had been planning the trip for over three years. Just the night before, we were dancing and making new friends and just having a great time.”
Mrs. Cook, of Mt. Lebanon, grew up in the Westwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh and moved to Carnegie as a teen, where she attended Carlynton High School.
“She moved to Sixth Avenue and I lived on Seventh Avenue all my life,” her husband said. “I used to check her out from afar. We were both at a friend’s party one day, and she had on these colorful socks, so I told her I liked them. Our first kiss happened that night, in front of her parents’ house. That’s where it all started.”
The couple married in June 1984 and kept their romance alive with weekly date nights.
“Years ago, we would take our two oldest children to Carnegie to stay overnight at her parents’ house, and Lora and I would stop by Papa J’s for dinner,” Mr. Cook said. “That was our Thursday night ritual for a while.”
When she began working in special education 10 years ago, Mrs. Cook immediately found her calling, often sharing the sorrows and burdens faced by her students on their bad days as well as their joys and victories.
“She used to tell the students stories sometimes to get their minds off of things,” Ms. Coatley said. “She worked with a lot of kids who had depression, and she was so empathetic.”
At home, she used her considerable culinary skills — some learned from recipes from the former Papa J’s — to treat her family.
“Growing up, we had a homemade meal every single day. Cooking was her way of making people feel better,” Ms. Coatley recalled. “On Fridays, we would order pizza or Chinese food and watch scary movies. That was our tradition.”
Mrs. Cook was also a wellknown fashionista whose wardrobe often reflected her effervescent personality. And, she would never dream of leaving the house without her signature pink lipstick.
“I have three daughters and every time Mom came in the door, that’s the first thing they noticed was the lipstick,” Ms. Coatley said, chuckling. “They love wearing makeup.”
Mrs. Cook’s other daughter, Veronica Cook, of Mt. Lebanon, remembered the lipstick for other reasons.
“When I was young, I was always homesick,” she recalled. “Every day before preschool, mom told me a story and kissed the palm of my hand. All day long, I could look at the lipstick and it reminded me of her.”
Her son, Tommy Cook, of Asheville, N.C., shared a love of crystals and stones with his mother.
“She would always call me and be so excited about different stones she would get,” he said. “That was one of our connections, the spirituality component of crystals and using them that way.”
Mrs. Cook and her son shared another unforgettable, unbreakable bond.
“I struggled with addiction in my past, and my mom was always there for me,” he said. “I’m on the other side of it now as a licensed therapist, and I still have all of the letters she sent me. She never ever gave up on me.”
Along with her husband and three children, Mrs. Cook is survived by her parents, John and Emilie Chasky, of Carnegie; her sisters, Amy Dempsey, of Whitehall, and Amber Westwood, of Mt. Lebanon; and three granddaughters, Quinn, Kendall and Carson Coatley.
A Mass is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Friday at St. Anne Catholic Church, 400 Hoodridge Drive, Castle Shannon, followed by a public celebration of life at Mindful Brewing Company, 3759 Library Road, Castle Shannon.
Guests are encouraged to wear bright colors in Mrs. Cook’s memory.