Roxanne Latham Mecham, 50, of Farmington, Michigan, passed away on the morning of Tuesday, June 18, 2013. She departed this life peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. Roxanne was born on March 18, 1963, in Salt Lake City, the fourth of Glenn and Louise Latham's six children. She spent her childhood in Eugene, Oregon and Logan, Utah where she later attended Utah State University and received her bachelor's degree in journalism and Japanese. In her early 20s, she served an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan, where she served and taught members of the community. As a young wife and mother, she remained actively engaged in reaching out to those in her communities, serving and loving those around her. She excelled at mentoring and inspiring people to learn. While her husband was stationed on an Air Force Base in Japan, Roxanne gave English lessons to Japanese children out of her home. After moving to Michigan, she helped develop an award-winning mentoring program with the Gale Group, a local research and publishing company, which received the district's 2001-2002 Outstanding Partner in Education Award. She later began working as a bilingual paraprofessional for Farmington Public School District, first at Longacre Elementary, and then Harrison High School and Farmington High School. She continually went above and beyond her role as an educator and facilitator for the international students in the district. She became an advocate for them and recognized their need to be involved in all aspects of the high school experience. The dedication she showed to her students was met with a love and respect from them that exceeded most student-teacher relationships. Throughout her life, she inspired people to respect and love the earth along with all the people on it. She developed and led FHS's most active clubs, Interact Earth and Interact Impact, which focused on environmental issues, recycling and global service outreach. She also won a state-wide grant to start a school garden to teach the students skills and whose produce was donated to Buckets of Rain, an organization for urban gardening in Detroit. Roxanne was a devoted mother to her three children, Mallory, Brett, and Stephanie. She was a constant example of hard work, grace, humor, and fortitude. Throughout her three-and-a-half year struggle with ovarian cancer, she approached life with gratitude for the work she could do, the beautiful relationships she developed, and the moments of joy, comfort and fun she experienced. She offered a few words of wisdom during her final days that sum up her attitude for living. She reminded us to "make healthy choices," but she tempered that with this sentiment: "I don't eat enough ice cream." She recommends Caramel Cashew from Aggie Ice Cream in Logan, Utah.Roxanne is survived by her children, Mallory, Brett and Stephanie; her mother, Louise Latham (the late Glenn); her siblings Karen Latham (Mark), Phillip Latham (Sue); Laura Wolford (Allan), Allen Latham (LeeAnn) and Julie Gunnell (the late Tyler). She is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews.A funeral service will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 21 (gathering at 9:30 a.m.) at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 31450 Six Mile Rd. (just west of Merriman Road), Livonia. The family will receive guests 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Heeney-Sundquist Funeral Home, 23720 Farmington Rd. (one block north of Grand River), downtown Farmington (248-474-5200). Memorials suggested to Buckets of Rain, PO Box 251, Empire, MI, 49630. heeney-sundquist.com