Durham mom endured tragedy time and again. How taekwondo helped her family persevere

The second tragedy came a year after the first.

In March 2019, Laura Campbell of Durham and her two sons, Isaac and Jacob, were visiting her parents in Florida from Durham. The five were driving to the beach, and the next thing Campbell knew, she woke up in the hospital.

The details were later put together for her. She was in a car accident, resulting in the death of her mother.

Campbell’s femur and knee were shattered. Her intestines torn. After two weeks in a trauma hospital and six weeks in a rehab facility, she spent three months in a wheelchair. Even when Campbell returned to work after five months of medical leave, she used a walker.

Five years later, Campbell isn’t just walking. She’s running, kicking and sparring, because standard physical therapy wasn’t enough. She wanted to prove to her kids — and herself — that she could build herself back better, stronger.

On Saturday, the 46-year-old fourth-grade teacher at Southwest Elementary School earned her black belt in taekwondo at Master Chang’s Martial Arts in Raleigh, a feat that seemed impossible to Campbell’s medical team just four years ago. Her taekwondo tendencies were discouraged anytime she returned to her physical therapist with complaints of knee pain.

But she didn’t listen.

“My doctors told me, ‘No,’” Campbell said. “But I heard, ‘Not yet.’”

A tragic loss

The first tragedy came on Jan. 17, 2018.

It was a snow day. All the Campbells were home. Derek, Laura’s husband of six years and Isaac and Jacob’s father, wasn’t feeling well. He’d had some chest pain recently and went upstairs to lay down.

An hour later, when Laura Campbell checked on him, he was dead. The 46-year-old was a loving father, devoted husband and generous friend known for his creativity and sense of humor. He had an infectious laugh and, as Campbell put it, was simply fun.

She later found out the cause: complications from an anomalous coronary artery, a rare heart condition. It provided an answer, but little comfort.

Jacob and Isaac were 3 and 5, respectively. They still remember that day and the arrival of the two fire trucks and three ambulances — seemingly the whole world coming to the house.

“The kids were so little,” Campbell said. “It took a few months for things to really settle in for them about, ‘No, Daddy’s really never coming back.’”

Jacob and Isaac were struggling. Campbell knew her family needed an outlet, but wasn’t certain what that would be.

Finding a happy place

Isaac and Jacob first stepped foot in Master Chang’s that spring on a two-week trial. They loved it, but Campbell had reservations.

“Having just lost my husband,” she said, “(I was) not really sure how I was going to do all of (it).”

After some encouragement from her mother-in-law, and seeing how beneficial the experience was, Campbell enrolled her sons.

Master Chang’s welcomed her family into a positive environment.

“You’re punching things and you’re kicking things, but you’re not doing it in an angry way,” she said. “It felt supportive and upbeat and fun and we just needed some of that in our lives.”

Jacob and Isaac soon began to move through the belt progressions. It was exciting, but more importantly, taekwondo served as a “reset” for the Campbells.

The kids could be in a bad mood, but none of that seemed to matter when they came to Master Chang’s.

Jacob, now a black belt at age 9, said taekwondo feels like “a whole separate thing that’s not connected to our day.”

Isaac, a second-degree black belt at age 12, said it’s their happy place.

“Even after a long day, even when we don’t want to come here, we always come out thinking, ‘Ah, I’m so glad I did that,’” Isaac said. “‘I’m so glad I came here because it was so much fun.’”

Getting into the game

Campbell was sick of sitting on the bleachers.

After working her way through rehab — and multiple operations, including four surgeries, a metal rod in her right femur and seven screws in the same knee — she began taekwondo classes in January 2021.

Her sons were skeptical.

“She wasn’t very good,” Isaac said, sharing a giggle with Jacob. “She had trouble doing the kicking and could only do one class a week. But compared to now, that’s nothing.”

When she began, Campbell had to wear braces on both knees and her right ankle. Icing and recovery were necessary. Practicing two days in a row simply was not an option.

Neither was quitting.

Two months after she joined Master Chang’s, Campbell tested for her first belt. It was around this time she fell in love with taekwondo.

“Everyone talks about mindfulness, but I don’t know how to do that in my daily life,” she said. “But when I go to taekwondo, I have to just concentrate on taekwondo, and it’s a nice break.”

‘My partner through this whole journey’

Sherri Smith, a 49-year-old associate professor and chief of audiology at Duke, has seen similar benefits. She began taking classes with her daughters, 12-year-old Raina and nine-year-old Keagan, in May 2021, and has since become Campbell’s sparring partner.

Smith, Raina and Keagan all earned their black belts alongside Campbell on Saturday.

Smith said she was not nervous to join the dojang, but rather, excited to serve as a role model for her daughters.

“That’s kind of a motto, if you will,” Smith said. “A guideline or principal of the school is to encourage each other to be role models.”

Core values — called black belt life skills — are plastered on the walls at Master Chang’s in capital letters and bold font.

RESPECT. DISCIPLINE. CONFIDENCE. LOYALTY. PATIENCE. FOCUS. SELF-CONTROL. HONESTY. INTEGRITY. PERSEVERANCE.

That last one, perseverance, is especially important. Training for a black belt as an adult — as one might imagine — is physically taxing. It takes stamina and core strength. The kicks, punches and sparring require a lot of energy.

Balancing all that with being a full-time working mom is no joke. But luckily, Smith has had someone there who understands.

“She’s always been my partner through this whole journey,” Smith said of Campbell, “So it’s been really rewarding from that perspective to kind of do this with another family.”

‘It’s what we needed’

There’s a beautiful rhythm at Master Chang’s on a typical Saturday morning. A speaker in the far corner blasts instrumentals — a fitting undercurrent for what’s about to play out.

Everything happens in unison. When the Campbells run through their forms and techniques, it’s almost like a dance.

Pivot and punch right.

Hi-yah!

Pivot and punch left.

Hi-yah!

Repeat. Then, two kicks to the front of the mat. One more punch. Reset. Bow.

The past six months have been intense as both families prepared for their black belt test — a grueling multi-hour ordeal. Campbell began running three times a week, sneaking it in whenever she could, even if it meant circling her sons on the field at a soccer practice.

Some days, Jacob and Isaac were the ones sitting on the bleachers, completing homework and watching on as their mom put in extra reps at the dojang. There’s no rest at home, either. Campbell said she’s stepped in front of the TV — blocking whatever program her sons were watching — to demonstrate a form and ask for pointers.

“She’s always upbeat and she’s very courageous,” Isaac said. “She comes here a lot, even though she has to drive us to all our soccer practices and futsal and all that. She’s still so determined to keep working hard and comes here even when we can’t.”

And yes, her biggest critics can now admit, watching mom earn black belt status is “pretty cool.”

For Smith, taekwondo has become a way for a busy mom and her two kids to bond. For the Campbells, it’s just that, but also so much more.

“It’s been a constant for us, and I don’t know what would’ve taken its place had we not found it,” Campbell said. “It’s been what we needed.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2024 at 6:00 AM.