Laura "Poochie" Vanderford

VANDERFORD, Laura "Poochie" (Harwood) - Age 80, of Grand Blanc Township, died Friday, August 27, 2021, after a long, courageous battle with Lymphoma at Symphony of Linden surrounded by family and friends. Funeral Services will be held 11:00 AM Wednesday, September 1, 2021, at Sharp Funeral Homes & Cremation Center, 6063 Fenton Rd., Grand Blanc, MI 48507. Pastor Robert Nolan officiating. Burial in Crestwood Cemetery (A live stream of the service will be available on Laura's obituary page at www.sharpfuneralhomes.com). Visitation will be held at the funeral home Tuesday from 4-8 PM and Wednesday from 9 AM - 11 AM at the funeral home. Those desiring may make contributions to New Road Baptist Church Building Fund, 1471 W. Bristol Road, Flint, MI 48507 as she wanted very badly for the church in which she was a proud founding member to have a permanent building to worship within.  Laura was born October 20, 1940, in Flint, MI, the daughter of Ira and Addie (McDougall) Harwood. She was a graduate of Flint Central High School, Class of 1958. She married Earl “Sam” Vanderford on June 27, 1964, in Flint, MI.  She retired from Grand Blanc Schools as the manager of Reid Road Elementary school’s cafeteria where she spent many years providing daily meals and hugs to the students there. Laura enjoyed spending time with her family and especially her grandchildren and great grandchildren, but also enjoyed traveling the country by car, as she refused to ever step foot on an airplane.  This did not curtail her travel, however, and many trips were made across the country to visit family and sites that she wanted to see.  She particularly enjoyed their winter trips to Texas that they made after retirement.  Laura also enjoyed shopping…a lot.  She once even had to rent a U-Haul trailer to bring back everything she had collected from a trip south.  With her during many of these shopping trips and other gatherings, were friends that she affectionately called “The Gang”, which is a special group of people that had a friendship among them that spanned nearly 70 years.  No member of the gang was more present than her friend Nancy Duford, with whom she had a weekly Friday night shopping date with for decades that has provided hundreds of stories of their misadventures. Laura also loved all animals and would cuddle anything that any of her children brought into the house-Hamsters, Dave the iguana, or Spike the pit bull-it didn’t matter, Laura loved them all.   Surviving are: her husband Earl; Daughter, Gayle (Paul) York of Fenton; sons, Gavin (Wendy) Vanderford of Elkhart, IN, and Dale (Teressa) Vanderford of Monroe; grandchildren, Aaron (Marie) York of Grand Blanc, Brenna (Nate) Keagle of Ypsilanti, Paige Vanderford and Megan Vanderford of Elkhart, IN; 8 great grandchildren; several nieces and a nephew.  Laura was preceded in death by her parents, brother, David Harwood, and sister-in-law Sula Harwood.  The family would like to thank the doctors for the care that she received over her journey of life and kept her here as long as possible with her family; her former Physician for over 50 years, Dr. Frederick VanDuyne and current medical team:  Dr. Asif Ishaque, Dr. Rizwan Danish, and Dr. Aashish Valvani.  Tributes may be shared at www.sharpfuneralhomes.com.