Laura Lee Taylor Hayashi

Laura Lee Taylor Hayashi was born on 19 March 1953 in Hollywood, California, to Rebecca Borton, a veterinary pathologist, and John Ross Taylor, a World War II veteran whose postwar accident left him institutionalised for the rest of his life. Rebecca's career moved the family between cities and states, and Laura's maternal grandmother, Carrie Borton, stepped in as a steady second mother. Encouraged by her mother to explore her own spirituality, Laura grew into a searching, philosophically minded young woman.

She studied philosophy for a year at the University of Iowa before leaving, disillusioned, and briefly lived in a commune. Returning home, she reconnected with an old neighbour, Christine, who introduced her to the Divine Principle. Laura embraced the Unification Church and dedicated the rest of her life to its mission of peace and unification. In 1975 she served as a PR sister on Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Day of Hope tour stop in Columbia, South Carolina, and later pioneered missions out of the Upshur House in Washington, D.C.

On 1 July 1982, Laura received the Holy Marriage Blessing with Yasuhiro 'Richard' Hayashi. Together they raised three children — Mathias, Samuel, and Yoshika — and built Miracle Fish, a tuna and yellowfin business serving Japanese restaurants in Florida, which they ran side by side for more than twenty-five years. In her thirties, Laura completed her bachelor's degree in psychology at George Washington University.

A pillar of the South Florida Unificationist community for decades, Laura was deeply involved in youth ministry, encouraging second-generation members to bring contemporary music into worship and famously waking them at workshops by singing in their rooms. She also led youth service projects in Miami-Dade County through Service for Peace and Summer of Service.

In later years, Laura trained as a trauma-resolution therapist, walking with friends and clients through painful memories so they could move forward. Friends recalled her as fearless, adventurous, and irrepressibly curious — canoeing the Everglades, chasing eclipses, snorkelling at Cedar Key, devouring books, and asking her children to notice five things in nature each day. She battled cancer for roughly five years.

Surrounded by her husband and her dear friend Jan Breslin, Laura passed to the spiritual world on 16 May 2021 at her South Florida home. She is survived by Richard, their three children, and her grandson, Noah Yasuhiro Montero Hayashi.

'I'm not sending butterflies,' Laura once told a pastor. 'I'm sending bricks. We are building the Kingdom of Heaven.'