Laura’s Arias battling lung cancer

Our dear friend Laura Arias recently celebrated the birth of her beautiful daughter Sophie. She was born on July 16, 2022, only a few months ago.

Laura wanted to be a mom and late last fall she heard the words ‘you’re pregnant”! Laura’s life was heading down the road she dreamed of.

After the birth of Sophie, only a few months ago, Laura began suffering severe migraines and as they became more consistent, she went to her doctor. During the visit her doctor determined she needed to go to the hospital, at that very moment she was brought to Yale New Haven Hospital where they discovered a brain tumor and performed emergency surgery on her immediately. The surgery was successful. The next step was to find out how and why. The next set of tests reveled lung cancer. As a non-smoker, this was very difficult to understand, especially when they determined it is stage 4 lung cancer.

Many of you know Laura, she was the partner at Ibiza Restaurant in Danbury, CT. She always greeted her customers and friends with a beautiful smile and a warm hug. Laura’s story is one of strength and perseverance. She lost her mom to cancer when she was very young. Growing up in Colombia with a loving family after the loss of her mother. This was the first of many challenges ahead. She studied engineering in Colombia, move to the United States and pursued her master’s in business administration at Albertus Magnus College. Along the way she fell in love with the restaurant business and ultimately found her happy place at Ibiza.

Another challenge, COVID-19 hit hard, but she kept the restaurant open throughout COVID, working tirelessly.

Laura recently told me “I will fight this for my beautiful daughter, she will not grow up without her mommy”. The fight will be another challenge, it takes fierce determination to go through the treatments at the same time as raising Sophie. Emotionally, its draining and we ask for you support and prayers. Financially, it is extremely difficult, and costly, one simple example we take for granted is transportation. Laura cannot drive due to the anti-epilepsy medication she is taking causing additional financial costs when family and friends are not able to help with transportation. The constant thought of “how do I take care of Sophie”? weighs heavily on her.

Many of you also know, Laura is very independent and humble. This notice and request to help her is from her family and dear friends, as Laura would never ask.

Please find it in you heart to support her with prayers and a financial contribution to help her plan for the Sophie’s future.

I do ask that we respect Laura’s battle, limiting calls. Cards and notes are especially uplifting.

With sincere appreciation and love for Laura & Sophie,

Anastasia