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Tamara Mac

ASSISTING, EDUCATING, AND SUPPORTING YOU IN CHOOSING A DEATH THAT ALIGNS WITH THE CORE VALUES THAT HAVE DEFINED THE WAY IN WHICH YOU HAVE LIVED...
AND ARE LIVING YOUR LIFE.

TAMARA MACINTYRE
MS, DC, DNM CEOLD

Tamara has found her true calling as a certified End of Life Doula and death educator.  She is empowering people and cultivating agency with a thoughtful path to aging, illness and dying  before decisions must    be made.

 

Her mission is to serve as a guide for  others so that they can choose an end-of-life passage that is in alignment with how they lived their life.  Her vision - to facilitate a space where people are more curious than afraid.

 

Tamara offers end of life education, Living Funeral Ceremonies, assists in individualized care planning and advocacy. She encourages everyone, regardless of age, to engage in conversations of death and dying before they are sitting face to face with their mortality. 

Tamara's commitment to principled heart-centered service and high-touch education has pervaded every facet of her career. A career which includes several years as a neuroscience researcher  and over  two decades as an internationally recognized chiropractor, educator and mentor.  

She is a co-founder of The PRANA   Foundation  where   she offers education, mentorship and facilitates the PRANA   Retreats in Costa Rica to others in health care.  Most recently she has co-founded  an online platform cōpe    to support those with chronic illness or a life-changing  diagnosis by providing tools and strategies to cultivate  resilience.

Tamara

FUN FACTS ABOUT TAMARA

I love being on a road bike riding in the sunshine with beautiful views & smells

I still own the sewing machine my mother gave me in high school

I play with clay... mostly hand building & studied in Japan for a month in 2019

I played the trombone & would have no idea how to play today

I don't like wearing socks or bras

I love sour jujubes (& I didn't realize until a few years ago that jujube was actually a fruit)

I love watching modern dance, it is like meditation for me

 

I am highly aesthetically inclined and for many years thought that this was vanity instead of a gift

 

I  weave various sustainable  after death vessels from coffins to  options for shrouds and urns

 

I   grieve the loss of many that I have dearly loved in this lifetime  every...single...day

 

oh... & I build beautiful altars 

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Nancy

A few words about Nancy... my best friend...

If you knew  Nancy you were touched by her...  her kindness, her grace, her strength, and her conviction to do it her   way, not anyone else's.

Nancy worked beside me for 10  years and then walked beside me for 10 more before she made her transition. 

She was my best friend.  We shared a love for aesthetics, textures and beauty,  a genuine curiosity of the human experience and most importantly she was my biggest fan and cheerleader and I was hers.

In all honesty, I  probably would not have found my way to this end of life path if it weren't for her even though grief and loss of those I love has been part of my entire life.

Including her here is part homage and part inspiration. Though our relationship has changed she is still with me every single day.

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REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU LEAVE THIS EARTH,  YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU NOTHING THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED - ONLY WHAT YOU HAVE GIVEN.

- St. Francis of Assisi

IT’S TIME TO START TALKING ABOUT ALL ASPECTS OF BEING HUMAN...

My very first memory of death was standing alongside my grandfather (Pup) as we knelt by the casket of his Mom, my great grandmother Catherine.  He talked me through what happens when you die and he talked about her body and her soul.  I was 11   years old at the time.  I remember her hands... so taken by her hands and the lack of life in them.   Pup spent much of my childhood with a diagnosis of prostate cancer. My Mom, a nurse by training, taught my sister, brother and I to treasure our time with him in case it was our last.  By the age of 16, my best friend was diagnosed with leukemia.  In the spring of my final year of high school my Dad was diagnosed with a malignant glioblastoma (brain tumour) and for my    first two years of university he underwent surgery and all medical treatments offered until there were no more.  He died the summer between my second and third year of my undergraduate degree. 

 

My parents were always incredibly open and I always understood what decisions were being made and why.  I had access to my Dad’s medical team and I asked a lot of questions.  My Dad’s neurosurgeon wrote a letter of recommendation for me a few years later when I applied to graduate school. In the 3 years that followed my father’s death, Pup died of bone cancer, my great aunt Mae with lymphoma, my grandmother Grace with lung cancer. 

 

I know that when people and their loved ones are supported in having tough conversations, in putting plans into place, putting practical matters on paper, there is room to focus on what matters most; the present moment.  When the person and their family are expertly cared for, there is less anxiety and fear and the process of the transition is a place of the love we feel.  We each bear the responsibility to work out our own dying AND our culture does not make room for these conversations easily nor do most people have much experience with the dying process.

Dr Mac
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I WANT TO MAKE IT EASIER TO HAVE THE TOUGH CONVERSATIONS.

I WANT TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF OPTIONS OFFERED, IN NAVIGATING YOUR CHOICES.

I AM HERE TO HELP YOU EXPLORE WHICH CONVENTIONAL & NON-CONVENTIONAL STRATEGIES MAY FEEL RIGHT TO YOU, AND HELP YOU PREPARE LEGAL AND MEDICAL DOCUMENTS THAT MUST BE IN PLACE FOR THESE CHOICES TO BE RESPECTED AND FOLLOWED WHEN YOU CAN NO LONGER SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.

The book lies on a travertine table with dried flower
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BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL

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LET ME ASSIST, SUPPORT & GUIDE YOU ON THE  JOURNEY.

JOIN ME
ON THIS JOURNEY

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WHAT PEOPLE SAY

"I'm so grateful for you doing this work and taking on this role, I had a lot of very raw feelings come up tonight on our call...thinking about how terrible and traumatic my mom's death was and how I have spent 16 years wishing it could have been more peaceful for everyone involved."

- B. P.

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