Larissa Taylor.Amy McNally/Amy McNally
Larissa Elisabeth Tomchyshyn Taylor: Daughter. Sister. Transplant mentor. Friend. Born April 22, 1988, in Ottawa; died April 2, 2019 in Kanata, Ont.; suddenly, of cardiac allograft vasculopathy; aged 30.
Larissa was social from the minute she could make eye contact. As soon as she could talk, she would walk up to anyone and ask questions. As a child, she loved to dance and started with ballet, but would make up her own dance steps rather than follow along with the class. She always wanted a sister. At the age of 5, when one finally arrived, she realized life as she knew it had changed. Her relationship with Adriana wasn’t close, but as they grew, Larissa’s protective streak would flare up to defend her younger sister.
Larissa always found school challenging. Academics weren’t as appealing as school’s social aspects. Outside of school, she loved being in the water and took diving lessons with the Nepean Ottawa Diving Club. She found her passion, and in adulthood she chose to coach rather than compete. She was tough with “her” divers and knew how to get the best out of them. At her wake, one mother said: “It wasn’t about the diving and the techniques, it’s about how she would ask about their days.”
When Larissa became your friend, there was no one more loyal. If she believed a friend was wronged, she would speak up. If she believed she had been betrayed, it hurt her deeply and she wouldn’t easily let that go. She ran capers – taking her mother’s car without a licence to drive it or sneaking out in the middle of the night. Her charm and wits would keep her out of the doghouse most of her life.
In 2007, days before Christmas, after unexpected dental surgery, Larissa was at home sleeping and went into distress. A tense 72-hour period passed during which no one knew whether she would survive. She did, but was listed for a heart transplant. A match was eventually found, and in the wee hours on her 20th birthday, she received her donor heart.
A life-changing diagnosis at the age of 19 of congestive heart failure wasn’t going to stop her from moving along her life’s path. But the first couple of years after her transplant were frustrating. As Larissa’s story became known, she was asked to talk about her experience and organ donation in schools, youth groups and at local service organizations.
Larissa never wanted the transplant to define who she was, but it had tremendous impact. She believed she was meant to help others see the positive in their lives as fully as she was living hers because of the gift she had been handed. The hospital would ask her to spend time with transplant patients and she became a “transplant mentor.” She used her story to lift others – not gently and quietly, but in a life affirming, noisy manner. She might drop colourful language that could put a stevedore to shame. She would “kick ass” rather than allow someone to wallow in self pity. Larissa spent months working with one young woman and they connected on a deep level. The 18-year-old got the call for a donor heart as she was on her way to Larissa’s wake.
Larissa met her boyfriend, Patrick, in high school, but they didn’t run in the same circles. She ran into him again about three years ago and they became inseparable. He was happy to take part in her kooky schemes and activities, even wearing his-and-her costumes at Halloween.
A large street-art installation now memorializes Larissa in her home town of Kanata, Ont. As much as we miss her, Larissa would want us to remember the donor who gave her an additional 11 years of a big life.
Terri Tomchyshyn is Larissa’s mother.
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Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go online to tgam.ca/livesguide