Who is Laura from Lost and Found and what is their importance?

Laura Gardner is an administrator in an office at an elementary school. She originally takes the job to be close to Cassie, her daughter, as she went to school, and kept on afterward, enjoying the job itself. Laura has raised her seventeen year old daughter, Cassie mostly on her own. In a year, Cassie will be headed to college, and leaving home. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for Laura, and part of her fears the unknown.