Emily Samantha Holmberg

LOUISVILLE/ORLANDO – Emily Holmberg, 34, passed away on May 26, 2025, after a courageous four-year battle against brain cancer. Her determination, fighting spirit, positive attitude, and belief in God’s plan never wavered. Our loss is Heaven’s gain.

Born on March 15, 1991, Emily was born and raised in Louisville. At five-months old she was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, which necessitated ten surgeries over the years to remove benign tumors. The condition also caused learning differences which Emily met head-on and overcame through her determined can-do and optimistic nature. She graduated from St. Bernard Elementary and Assumption High School with honors. Having artistic ability, especially with the camera, Emily earned an associate’s degree in photography from Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Family visits to Disney World beginning when she was six, and having her brother Aaron working there, pointed Emmie to Orlando and a professional internship which became a permanent position as a photographer for the Photo Pass program, documenting vacation memories for thousands of visitors. Her keen eye and creativity earned her multiple Photo of the Week and Photo of the Month awards and a Photo of the Year nomination. Living in Orlando and in pursuing her dream of working for Disney, Emmie truly bloomed in her friendly, welcoming, accepting outlook. She always had a smile on her face and a kind word to say.

In December of 2018 she met Lewis M. Albright. A meeting over coffee at Starbucks led to romance and a deep love for one another. They were engaged in October of 2019 with a wedding date set for October 2020. The COVID pandemic derailed the planned church wedding, and rather than delay beginning their life together, Emmie and Lewis went to the courthouse for their license and then had a lovely ceremony in Lewis’s brother’s backyard on August 16, 2020. Emmie’s brother Aaron gave her away with the Albright family in attendance, while Emmie’s parents Ruthe and Jim watched from Louisville via Facetime. Emmie was welcomed with open arms by the Albrights and they truly became her Orlando family.

Once COVID restrictions began to lift, Emmie and Lewis returned to work; Emmie to photography at Animal Kingdom and Lewis as a chef at the Polynesian resort. Just eleven months after being married, Emmie’s brain cancer manifested itself when she had a seizure at work. The diagnosis of an inoperable cancerous brain tumor led to almost four years of continuous chemotherapy treatments and two rounds of radiation in efforts to defeat the cancer or at least keep it from advancing. When Emmie was able to return to work, while still enduring oral and infusion chemo, she could no longer pursue photography, and was assigned to food service at the Riviera resort where she made new friends and was a ray of sunshine among a welcoming and supportive staff.

Sadly, Emmie’s cancer finally figured out how to defeat both the chemo and radiation and in March of this year it aggressively advanced and Emmie began to rapidly decline. By early May she was unable to walk, had limited speech, and slept most of the time. Her last two weeks were spent in hospital hospice care, where she passed away on the morning of May 26 with Lewis and her parents at her side.

Emmie is survived by her loving and devoted husband Lewis, who was a rock through this ordeal, never flagging in his care and concern for her, parents Ruthe and Jim Holmberg, siblings Elise Buck and Aaron (Holly), grandmother Ann Holmberg, nephew and niece Leo and Lucy Buck, and many Holmberg, Pfisterer, and Albright family members. Our thanks are extended to the neuro oncology staffs at Advent Orlando and the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for their efforts and care, and especially to the hospice staff at Advent Kissimmee during Emmie’s final two weeks. Also, our thanks to geneticist Dr. Joseph Hersh who began seeing Emmie upon diagnosis, and saw her annually until recent years, providing his expertise and support.

A celebration of life will be held at Henry Chapel, First Baptist Orlando, at 11:00am on Saturday, July 12. At Emmie’s request, she wanted those attending, as well as those not able to, to wear something orange, her favorite color, in her memory. Donations can be made in her memory to the Brian B. Lindsay Trust at the WHAS Crusade for Children, 520 W. Chestnut St., Louisville, KY 40202 [or online: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/wcfc/event/brianblindsaytrust]; or online to Central Florida Hospice at: www.adventhealthhospice.com.