Friends remember UW student Sarah Plants

Friends of senior Sarah Plants said she was outgoing, energetic, caring, considerate, genuine, dedicated, passionate and fun.

“Out of anyone that I’ve known in my life, she was probably the one with the most zest for life,” said graduate student Heather Ann Brauer, her friend and former roommate.

“She was always making people laugh and smile. She was just always so fun. Everyone wanted to be around Sarah because she was so fun.”

Plants, 22, died Feb. 7 of a brain tumor linked to Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, the same rare hereditary disorder that claimed the lives of her father and brother. She was diagnosed with the disorder in October.

Those affected by Li-Fraumeni Syndrome have a greater risk of developing cancer because of a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene that normally helps control cell growth. The disorder is prominent in children and young adults and can result in the development of many different cancers.

Plants had survived cancer as a toddler. She suffered from adrenal cortical carcinoma, or cancer of the adrenal gland above the kidney, and went through chemotherapy at 16 months old.

“She knew all along she was on a short string,” said her mother Michelle Plants, in an interview with the Seattle P-I.

Brauer said Plants captured the idea of living in the moment.

“So often in life people are so concerned with the next step,” she said. “They’re always thinking ‘What am I going to do next?’ Sarah was very much ‘What am I doing now? And how can I do that the best I possibly can?’”

Brauer added that Plants was passionate about her life.

“No matter what Sarah was doing, she was pouring her heart into it,” Brauer said. “Sarah never did anything she wasn’t passionate about.”

Plants’ husband, senior Doug Sumi, said she was smiling and being silly until the end.

“We were in the hospital for Fat Tuesday and someone put a pair of Mardi Gras beads around her neck and she started to attempt to remove her top,” he said. “Through the end she was frickin’ hilarious and awesome. She never lost her sense of humor.”

Plants was 29 credits short of earning a degree in Public Health. When she died, the University gave her an honorary degree. She had planned to go to graduate school to study nursing.

She was captain of the UW Element women’s Ultimate Frisbee team and the coach of an Ultimate team at Whitman Middle School.

“She was the ideal captain and teammate,” Element coach Miranda Roth said. “Inviting to new players, leading by example on and off the field, being efficient and clear with instructions for teammates. And [she] managed to do it all while keeping the love for and from her teammates as the number one priority.”

Memorial services for Plants were held at Whitman Middle School Feb. 15.

“It was the perfect service,” Brauer said. “The whole day, it felt like a Sarah event. There were all these people telling great, funny stories about Sarah and good moments they’d had with Sarah. The only thing missing was that Sarah wasn’t there.”

[Reach reporter Sara Bruestle at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]