Erika Saari Williams

On September 4, 2022, Erika Saari Williams passed away at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, IA. To her very last breath, Erika refused to back down to the aggressive triple-negative breast cancer she had been diagnosed with almost 4 years prior.

Erika insisted that we never fall back on cliches to describe what she was going through. She bristled at the idea that this was somehow a battle, or that she was a warrior. Those words imply there was a fair fight involved and that she could have won if only she was determined or strong enough. In fact, triple-negative breast cancer—the most aggressive and deadly form of breast cancer—does not play fair, regardless of its stage and the treatments thrown at it. It is a monster that keeps chasing until the point of complete exhaustion. The cancer did take her life. But until the very end, Erika never stopped trying to beat it back for the chance at one more day, one more moment, to live.

Erika Lynn Saari was born in Ames, IA on June 6, 1978, to Dennis and Kathleen Saari. Despite living in the middle American corn-and-hog state of Iowa for Dennis’ job at the USDA, the family’s true roots were back on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota, where their cabin and sauna are located on Lake Leander. This was the family’s central base, where they spent every holiday and vacation. Erika loved the long summer days of fishing, kayaking, swimming, and most of all, waterskiing.

After graduating from Ames High School in 1996 (5 months early and with several college credits already completed), Erika hightailed it out of Iowa, excited to see what the world had to offer. Her first stop was Hamline University in Minneapolis, MN, where she graduated cum laude with a double major in economics and political science. Her two summers studying abroad had given her “itchy feet,” so before settling down in the predictably boring career path of the typical college grad, she decided to have one last adventure. In the summer of 2000, she moved to Seoul, South Korea to teach English to school-age children.

Two months into her stay in South Korea, Erika met her future husband—U.S. Army officer, Steven Williams—in the unisex/co-ed bathroom of a bar where he helped free her from a broken stall. After dating for just a few months, Steve was sent to Fort Knox, KY. Erika took a leap of faith and joined him there a couple of months later.

Steve’s next assignment took them to Colorado Springs, CO. It was within days of signing the papers on a new home, when the events of 9/11 gave Erika her first experience of what it took to be in a relationship with a soldier. The war that followed took Steve on a year-long deployment with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR), Mad Dog Company. Before he left, the couple found time to get engaged on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, plan a full wedding, and marry in the mountains of Colorado. Erika (not interested in being a stay-at-home wife) got a full-time job at the Bank of the Broadmoor and enrolled in the MBA graduate program at Colorado State University.

While Steve was deployed to Iraq, he took command of Mad Dog Company. Erika was surprised to find out that, by default, she was now the leader of the Family Readiness Group (FRG) for the spouses and families in the company. Despite the stresses of being newly married to a deployed soldier, managing a full-time job, and juggling the daily crises of the FRG, Erika graduated on schedule with her MBA in 2004.

After 5 years in CO, the couple relocated to Charleston, SC, followed by a move to Montgomery, AL. Here Erika started Oscar Elnes Photography (named after her grandfather, who was also a photographer), a business she could take with her on the couple’s life travels. With camera in hand, she created art out of life’s special moments for military families, as well as capturing the scenery and cultures of all the countries she visited.

In 2009, the couple were thrilled when Steve’s request for an assignment in Italy was accepted. After settling into an apartment in Vicenza, they wholeheartedly embraced the Italian lifestyle. Erika met many new lifelong friends and the couple brought home a sweet little puppy, named Signore Bianco (i.e. Siggy). Despite another long deployment for Steve, Erika continued her business, while also working as a photography instructor at the Art Center in Vicenza. Weekends and holidays were spent traveling to as many European countries as possible, including their favorite trip of all time—a 2-week pilgrimage along the Camino del Santiago in Spain.

After 7 years of happiness in a country they now thought of as home, Erika and Steve had to reluctantly move on. Their next stop was in Mons, Belgium, where Steve served as the United States National Military Representative for NATO. Erika proudly took over as the head of the International Women’s Club for SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe).

But the best was still yet to come. In 2017, the couple welcomed their twin sons, Luca and Grant. The boys brought pure joy into their lives, and the adventures continued almost immediately. Overnight trips with the infant boys were made to Paris and Brussels, long weekends to Germany and Morocco were par for the course.

Steve’s next assignment brought them full circle to where they had first met—South Korea. But in 2018, after the terrifying cancer diagnosis, the family was forced to make an emergency move to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where the next 2½ years were a blur of surgeries and treatments. The days were long and difficult, but the family was loved and supported by so many on the island, including the incredible oncology team at Tripler Army Medical Center. After the devastating news that Erika’s cancer had advanced to stage IV, a compassionate reassignment took them back to Iowa to be near family in October of 2021.

Erika was passionate about so many things in life. She loved her family and friends fiercely. Hosting the holidays at her house was her favorite tradition and she adored entertaining (despite also being a self-proclaimed introvert and bookworm). Erika loved adventure, seeing new places, experiencing new cultures, and trying all the new foods (especially anything sweet or chocolatey.) She was a master at planning and organizing trips—booking flights, reserving hotels, scoping out restaurants, and lining up all the activities and sight-seeing destinations for the itinerary. Most of all, she loved traveling with Luca and Grant and seeing everything through their young eyes.

Erika’s generosity was above and beyond. She was an expert in investing money, and she was more than happy to give and share. At every birthday, she would gift money to her nieces and nephews for college savings. She helped fund small businesses of the hardworking people she met through her travels, tipped generously, and shopped and dined out at local places whenever possible. If a friend owned a business, you better believe she shopped at that business. She was an advocate of all the hard workers in the world. But her most notorious money advice—never buy a car new off the lot, always buy old and used. The older and more used, the better (which eventually became a source of competition between family members).

During COVID quarantine in Hawaii, Erika became a talented genealogist, and found a new calling tracing her ancestors back through the generations, collecting stories, photographs, news articles, and tracking down birth and death certificates from as far away as Norway and Finland. She painstakingly organized all the information she collected into books for each large limb of the family tree, printing 4 complete books of genealogical research, with several still in the works.

Erika was forced to leave us. Not because she was ready. But because the cancer could not be stopped. Here is where Erika’s life ends, but her story does not. We are able to bring her to life every day through the memories we built with her, the family genealogy books she compiled, and the photographs and videos she created. Her boys will get to hear her thoughts and advice through the letters she wrote to them, anticipating what questions they would have for her as they grow older. She loved Luca and Grant with everything in her and they will always know how much she wished, hoped, and wanted to see them grow up.

Erika leaves behind a family who love her so much: her husband, Steve; sons, Luca and Grant; mother, Kathleen; sister, Jessica; brother-in-law, Adam; nephews, Dane and Devin; niece, Annika; many aunts and cousins; as well as friends from every stop she made in her travels around the world. Erika was preceded in death by her father, Dennis.

For those of you who also knew and loved Erika, please never stop remembering and loving her. And if you have a chance to go on an adventure—even if you’re too busy with life and work—go on that adventure. Do it for Erika. Because life is too short to be boring.

Celebration of Life will take place at 5:00 p.m. Friday, September 30, 2022 at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway, 3601 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines, Iowa with visitation one hour prior. A flowing reception will follow the service.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com.

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