Caitlyn Fuller from Hornsby tells us about her very close friend of eight years, Laura Matrljan, in her entry to the North Shore Mums Mother’s Day Competition to find the North Shore’s most inspiring mum of 2016!
Laura Matrljan has always been one of the strongest, most beautiful and full of life women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. She, along with her husband, Aaron – who is also a very dear friend of mine – have raised two lively, outgoing and handsome little boys and they have a wonderful network of family and friends behind them.
Laura rocking a pout AND a shaved hear
Last year, Laura was diagnosed with breast cancer and she ended up having a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction right after. She underwent chemotherapy and was so terribly sick that it was physically impossible to be around her two sons Luka, age 5 and Rocco, age 3 – and yet she smiled and put on a brave face every time she did see them. She rocked a fabulous wig and the shaved head – she embraced the experience and even documented it. She was determined to remain in control, it would not defeat her or break her spirit. Her experience awoke in her a desire to help and educate others in her position and she has inspired not only those other cancer sufferers and survivors but whoever will hear her message. She didn’t hide, she faced it head-on and talked about it, suffered through it and kicked cancer’s butt!
She is now in remission, though her fight continues, but she simply lives life to its fullest enjoying spending quality time with her family and friends.
Only recently, on a girl’s weekend away to the Central Coast of NSW, I discovered that Laura’s battles have continued- she and her husband had hoped to try for another baby in the future or at least did not want to rule out the possibility, however she had been unsuccessful in her IVF treatments in the past and was now going through early onset menopause due to the chemotherapy. Hot flushes and all! The hardest part of the weekend for her was being apart from her three men, little and big.
Laura is always beaming and looks radiant and happy- she takes pride in her family, her appearance and her home. When she could no longer work due to having her first child she turned her hobby of sewing into a business opportunity and ‘Quillow Lane’ was born. She has sewn around time spent with her children and subsequently worked for Lorraine Lea as a mobile sales representative as well as for a party shop in her local area.
A radiant smile despite the challenging year.
Laura has always strived for independence and has enjoyed life at full speed. At our recent wedding she was the life of the party. I have loved going through all of our wedding photos and seeing so many images of Laura cutting up the dance floor! I could not have pulled off a surprise for my husband on the day of our wedding without her help – she and Aaron drove Carl’s best friend (who had travelled all the way from Canada) to our wedding in the Blue Mountains from the Upper North Shore and they offered up the extra bed in their room at the venue so that he could stay the night, without Carl’s knowledge.
When the shoes I had purchased for this surprise groomsman fell through, I called upon Laura to help me and as always she went out of her way to do so without question. She drove to a location the day prior to the wedding to collect another pair on my behalf as I was already out of the city.
Laura is the best mother, wife and friend anyone could ever hope for. I feel blessed to know her and I aspire to be the kind of woman and mother that she is – we are so close in age and yet it feels as though she is so much wiser in all that she has experienced in her life to date. I look forward to many, many more years of friendship with this most gorgeous of women. I love and admire her to no end!
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: Laura Matrljan is an admin of the North Shore Mums Facebook group. She is not employed by the North Shore Mums website, and has no affiliation with this competition. This is such a lovely article about a really special person, and we really wanted to publish it so she knows just how much she is loved! We’d love to hear your thoughts about whether we should include this nomination in the final voting for the prize. Please comment below and let us know!
