This website is a memorial to my dear friend Claire Rudholm, also known by her spiritual name Tara. To avoid confusion, I'll use Tara predominantly on this site. Early in 2004 Tara was having strange symptoms that at first confused her doctors. Eventually, after an extended battery of tests, she was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer that had already metastacized throughout her body; she was given 'weeks to months' to live. Unfortunately this fairly dire prophecy would turn out to be true. My name is Mark Holmes, and it was an honor to share the end of Tara's journey with her.
In late may of 2004 Tara expressed a desire to return to southern India to the Sivananda ashram where she had lived and worked as a karma yogi, and I offered to accompany her. In fact Tara had been involved at a number of Sivananda centers and ashrams around the world—in New York, San Francisco, Montreal, and in two locations in India. She variously studied, lived and taught yoga and vedanta (philosophy) at these centers, and truly had a love for people she met and lived with there. She had a particular fondness for the asram in Neyyar Dam, Kerala, southern India; and as it was situated in the ancestral home of Ayurvedic medicine, it was a natural place to want to travel. You can learn more about Swami Sivananda and his legacy by going to www.sivananda.org.
It probably goes without saying that the spring and summer of 2004 were pretty crazy, and during that short time we witnessed the steady and relentless assualt on Tara's health, leading to her death on August 1st, 2004 during a full moon. Though we were in India a mere 5 1/2 weeks before her death, a considerable amount of communication, mostly via e-mail, was exchanged among the large and loving group of friends and family she had. This site is a snapshot of those 5 1/2 weeks in the ashram, her death, cremation, and a little bit about the ceremonies that followed. She had requested a full traditional Hindu cremation, and that her remains be spread along the holy Ganges river—a most auspicious end.
Most of what you'll find here are e-mail updates that were sent out with increasing frequency as Tara's health deteriorated, as well as thoughts and kind wishes from the group. The e-mails are archived and available to read; additionally there is a guest book where friends and family left messages for her.
There are also 3 photo albums of our time there, detailing our trip over, a 'day in the life' at the ashram, and then finally Tara's funeral and cremation. Along with the writings contributed by everyone, these pictures help tell a piece of the remarkable tale that was my friend's life—and the profound grace and beauty of her death.
Here's some things you can do:
If you are moved by Tara's story, and the love that was shown her, please consider a donation to the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center that was so important in her life. Please see the picture below for details.
