Wendy Dawn Mealer, age 50, was tragically lost in the early hours of May 29th when an oncoming driver crossed the center line and struck her vehicle head-on just outside Wharton Texas on 59 Business/HWY 60.

Wendy was born in Vallejo, California June 21, 1975, and split her time growing up between Fairfield California and Stillwater Oklahoma. It was while attending high school in Stillwater in 1990 that Wendy became known for always being unapologetically herself: a fiercely loyal friend and an intentional builder of community. She had a gift for connecting the people she loved through shared experiences and a genuine sense of wonder at the world. Art, music, theater, and laughter filled her life, and so did animals. You could often find her with a lizard on her shoulder, a chinchilla in her hands, or a cat weaving around her feet. She graduated in high school in 1993 and went on to attend the University of North Texas

In November 1998, Wendy met Jerod Laughlin while serving as a host at the wedding of Peter Stauber and Chris Marek in Houston, Texas. Six months of phone dating later, Wendy accepted Jerod's invitation to join him in the United Kingdom, where he was living at the time, and the two would never be apart again. They secretly wed on July 9, 2001, in a small ceremony attended by a group of close friends, held at Morden Park House in Wimbledon, England.

For the next 15 years, Wendy and Jerod crisscrossed the country continuously as she grew and developed her Human Resources career, living in Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Overland Park, Kansas; Oakland, California, and Lee's Summit, Missouri. During this period Wendy and Jerod found time to explore their mutual interests and hobbies. Wendy completed multiple long-distance motorcycle trips across the continental United States, riding the Pacific Coast Highway from Southern California to Seattle, Washington; traveling from Kansas City to Alaska; and completing an eastern seaboard trip covering 9,000 miles in 13 days. She was also an avid SCUBA diver, earning her PADI Rescue Diver certification and logging over 100 dives at destinations including Indonesia, Turks & Caicos, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Cayman Islands.

In June 2016, while living in Oakland, Wendy embarked on her greatest adventure: the birth of her only child, Jaspa John Laughlin. She became the mother every kid hopes they'll get. Wendy approached motherhood the same way she navigated HR technology, thorough research, rigorous test and learn methodology, and a healthy dose of fail-fast progress over perfection. She loved being a mom, and sharing new experiences with her son was central to her parenting style. Twice a year, the two took mother-son trips to various destinations like New York City, visiting museums and soaking up everything a city had to offer. Her deepest desire was to instill in Jaspa a love of learning and exploration, to give him the experiences she never had, so he could reach his fullest potential.

Wendy is survived by her Loving and Devoted Husband Jerod Laughlin, her cherished son Jaspa Laughlin, her parents Stormey Mealer and Beverly Mealer and her sister Angela Belford.

A celebration of her life will be held June 20th, 2:00 PM at Taylor Bros. Funeral Home in Bay City Texas with Rev. Bill Bullard officiating. Honorary pallbearers are: Sara Breece, Courtney Selby, Julie Stimmel, Anna Pissanetsky, Chris Stauber, and Brian Walker.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the North American Butterfly Association in Wendy's honor ( naba.org )