About Laura MacGregor
Author. Speaker. Advocate.
Media Bio
Laura MacGregor is a writer, lapsed academic, and the mother of three sons, one of whom lived with profound disabilities and complex medical needs for two decades. To make sense of her life as an extreme caregiver Laura completed a PhD in her fifties. After her son's death in 2020 she enrolled in The Writer's Studio (SFU), hoping that words might offer a path out of grief.
She is the author of several academic articles about mothering a disabled child and is a co-editor of Disrupting Stories and Images of Church to be published by Bloomsbury in 2026. Her essay, The Invisible Woman, won the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Hi. I’m Laura
I’m a mom, writer, researcher, advocate, and facilitator trained in the Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) method. My writing and advocacy focus primarily on the experiences of caregiving women.
How I Got Here
After finishing high school, I studied occupational therapy at the University of Toronto, eventually completing a master’s degree at Western University in the mid-nineteen-nineties. Back then, my research focused on the ways society limits the experiences and opportunities for people with disabilities. Four years after defending my master’s thesis, I gave birth to a son, Matthew, who was diagnosed with profound disabilities shortly after birth.
As an extreme caregiver, I understand how love and joy can live in the same space as exhaustion and isolation. I understand what it’s like to provide invisible and unappreciated labour and to have professionals ignore hard-won expertise. Desperate to make sense of my own caregiving journey and to better understand the lived experiences of parents raising disabled children, particularly mothers, I went on to complete a second master’s degree and a PhD.
After Matthew died early in the pandemic, I enrolled at the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. I hoped that by writing my story, I might discover a way out of my grief. Interested in creating safe spaces for women, caregivers, and bereaved parents to share their own complicated stories, I also became an AWA writing facilitator.
In 2025 my essay, "The Invisible Woman," won the CBC Nonfiction Prize.
These Days
I spend my time writing, knitting, hiking, and hanging out with my wonderful husband and family.
At present I’m working on a memoir, Enough: Two Decades of Extreme Mothering, which explores the many ways society judges and fails women and mothers.
I love tea and birds and puzzles and gardening, and can often be found curled up in my reading nook with my nose in a book. I work (very) part-time at a charming used bookstore, talk with groups about caregiving, and facilitate women’s writing circles.
Hiking in the slot caves in Arizona
Matthew's Garden created in his memory.
Matthew as a young boy.
Matthew and Myself - Photo by Unknown
Overlooking the mudflats in Northern England leading to Holy Island (Lindisfarne)
Knitting during my brand photoshoot!
Matthew performing with his Color Guard in upstate New York
Sometimes you just have to laugh at where life takes you!
