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Second-parent adoption activist, mother, dies from cancer

Ellen Joan Mettler, a fierce advocate for second-parent adoption rights and mother of two from the Flint area, passed away in her home Feb. 23 after a decade-long battle with cancer. She was 51.
Mettler, a life-long Girl Scout, was born in Flint but grew up in Ann Arbor. She worked as the program director of the Girl Scouts of the USA-Fair Winds Council in Genesee County for over 20 years, stopping just a few years ago. "She always put the girls first," friend Dawn Hibbard told the Flint Journal. "She was absolutely dedicated to the Girl Scout experience and how it helped young women become more independent and self sufficient.
Mettler was also known for her passion for issues surrounding LGBT parenting, and was a parent twice over with her partner of 30 years, Ann Anglim. The couple adopted two daughters, Madeline Joan Sorphea and Adriana Marilyn Sokhoeun, from Cambodia in 2002 and 2003. After their adoption, according to the Flint Journal, she continued to work with the orphanage where her daughters had lived, spending a month there in 2004 and, with Anglim, fostering two other girls and sending packages of supplies to them.
A memorial was held March 7 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Flint celebrating Mettler's life. Donations in her honor can be made to Camp Kesem Michigan, a camp for children whose parents have or had cancer, or the UU Church of Flint, located at 2474 S. Ballenger Highway in Flint.

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