Laurita Sue (Levering) Wilscam (1944 - 2017)

Laurita Sue (Levering) Wilscam, age 72, of Taylor, AL passed from this life into the arms of her Lord and Saviour on February 25, 2017.

Laurita was born in Mineral Wells, Texas on July 27, 1944 to CW-2 George H. Levering and Leda R. (Monroe) Levering. She lived her early childhood years in the Panama Canal Zone, returning to the US at around age 9, to Lawton, OK, where she completed her school years.

She married Jimmy D. Ryans in Lawton on Dec. 27, 1960, her two children were born of this marriage.

Laurita studied medical transcription and terminology, and worked for many years at the Jim Taliaferro Community Mental Health Center in Lawton, OK, as secretary to Dr. Royce B. Means, and also worked at Comanche County Memorial Hospital.

Laurita moved to Daleville, Alabama in 1984, working as a medical transcriptionist at what was then Humana Hospital in Enterprise, AL for a few years before moving to Dothan, where she worked as a transcriptionist in Medical Records at Flower’s Hospital beginning in 1987.

This was the job that she truly loved, and she worked many overtime hours and was on-call most of the time as well, going in to work at all hours of the night, and still showing up to work smiling early in the morning.

Laurita was a very dedicated and devoted employee, and received a gold pin and a certificate for 20 years of service in 2007, as well as having her name engraved on the wall in the front entry of Flowers Hospital, alongside the names of other employees of the hospital who had in 20 years or more of service.

She remained at Flowers for a couple more years, until the day the hospital informed all the transcriptionists that the entire transcription department was being outsourced to India. This was a cruel and very painful blow for Laurita, who was just a couple years shy of retirement.

She shed many tears, struggling with depression and a feeling of the loss of her identity, and yet she pressed on, landing a job at Urological Associates of Dothan as a transcriptionist at age 63. Then word came down, after only about a year, that the company was downsizing. She was the last employee hired, and therefore, was again out of work.

This time, however, Laurita decided to retire. It took the better part of a year to work through this, a time of trying to find herself, as a new retiree. She’d always loved her work, and having devoted herself to it, it was hard to learn how to slow down.

She had just begun to learn to enjoy her retirement, after 6 or 7 months, and make peace with being at home. She was enjoying going shopping, going out to eat with her best friend Teri, spending time with family and her cats, when on April 11, 2013, she suffered a stroke which left her entire right side completely paralyzed.

After her stroke, she was cared for full time, in her home, by her daughter, where they had many, many laughs and very happy times, as, in spite of all the struggles that they shared, Laurita remained her cheerful, gracious, and loving self.

In January of 2016, Laurita suffered another stroke, this time on the right side of her brain, which caused total paralysis of the left side of her body, leaving her a quadriplegic. She was in and out of the hospital, Flowers Hospital, over the next year. She was still able to talk, with minimal slurring of her speech, and she and her daughter cherished their time together, whether at home or at the hospital, continued to do the best they knew how, and still had lots of love and laughter together.

Late one night, on February 25, 2017, Laurita quietly slipped away with her daughter and youngest grandson at her side.

Laurita was a sweet Christian lady, who loved the Lord. She was kind-hearted and considerate, both loving and generous. Always thinking of others before herself, she made friends easily, with her contagious smile, gentle laugh, and a heart of gold. She loved her cats, and her favorite place on earth to be was at the beach.

She is survived by her daughter, Shelley Rene Baker of Taylor, AL, her son, Greg Ryans of Phonenix, AZ, four grandchildren, Timothy Thomas, Vurban Guevara, Adrian Connor Lee Baker, of Taylor, AL, Joshua Ryans, of Phoenix, AZ, and a great-granddaughter, Kira Lynn Thomas, two special nieces, Laura Brunskill of Petrolia, TX, and Julie Myers of Oklahoma City, OK.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, her sister, Tommie Jo Haverstock of Petrolia, TX, and nephew, Michael C. Haverstock.

Note: In life, it was Laurita's wish to be cremated rather than buried, and her wish was carried out at Sunset Memorial Park Funeral Home. Her ashes were given to her family.