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We began as a grass-roots project under the umbrella of Land of Medicine Buddha.

Hospice Nurse Lennie Kronisch recognized a spiritual home at Vajrapani, a Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT*) center when it was established in the northern-most reaches of Boulder Creek on a deeply wooded and blissfully secluded 75 acre property. Her home there was affectionately known by many as the “Gypsy Wagon”, a charming, hand-crafted, wood framed cottage built on the bed of a commercial truck.

It was Lennie who identified a precious need: in order for a person with a terminal illness to be accepted into Hospice, a 24/7 responsible designee is required – so some did not qualify; some could not stay in their current residence to die; many at end-of-life, after experiencing long illnesses, had depleted both their financial resources and/or family/caregiver support; and many were fearful of death.

Lennie Kronisch, RN
Founding Director

Ven Tenzin Chogkyi
Co-Founder

Petra was co-director of Vajrapani, later taking her vows as Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi. She had also been a Hospice volunteer at the Maitri Hospice in San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. Petra had similar concerns regarding the absence of a local community, end-of-life residential care home.

In 1996, Lennie and Petra approached Lama Zopa Rinpoche to express their concerns and seek his advice. Lama Zopa felt that this type of care home was needed, and would be more appropriately located at Land of Medicine Buddha (LMB) in Soquel, California, as this FPMT center is more centrally located in the County and has more adequately improved site access.

Lama Yeshe & Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Establishing such a care home is also consistent with Lama Yeshe’s vision for LMB as a center for Universal Education, a non-denominational approach to birth to death education and spiritual support steeped in Buddhist philosophy, to maximize mainstream appeal and create more far-reaching impacts.

Both venerables are commemorated here, as part of preserving the Mahayana tradition. They brought the Buddhist traditions of death and dying into the current that still flows through Tara Home today.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed the Tara Home Vision Statement in 1997.

TARA HOME VISION STATEMENT

Tara Home is founded with the intent to apply the teachings of Buddha to dying, death, and bereavement in modern society. Because suffering, change, and interdependence characterize the life of all beings, our four-fold purpose is:

1. To help the dying attain a happy, peaceful state by recognition of their positive situation;
2. To alleviate suffering through aware and compassionate support of the eddying and their loved ones;
3. To enable dying persons and their caregivers to use the process of death as an opportunity to awaken to their fully enlightened nature; and,
4. To expound and deepen societal understanding of the role of death in everyday life.

1996

With Lama Zopa’s support secured, Lennie and Petra formed a steering committee this same year; developing the envisioned structure for and operation of a grass-roots end-of-life care home as a project under the umbrella of LMB.

1997

Petra was promoted into the position of co-director of FPMT; Lennie forged ahead.

2000

Jan Fitzgerald, a dedicated Buddhist practitioner, developed terminal ovarian cancer. Together they discussed Jan’s impeding death, and her desire to die at LMB in robes as an ordained Buddhist nun. Lennie saw in Jan all of the causes and conditions that had urged her to create a residential care home on the grounds of a blessed and spiritual place: Jan was living in a rented home, and was unable to remain in this home at the end of her life; she needed a strong support network to ensure a peaceful mind at the time death; and her most heart-felt wish was to die on the grounds of LMB and experience a death on her spiritual path. Sally Barraud, the then Director of LMB, was very supportive of the project. Sally chose and offered an existing retreat cabin on a wooded hill situated above the gompa (mediation hall) and prayer wheels. Lennie furnished the one-bedroom, one-bath cabin as a warm and welcoming “home”, devoid of any hint of an “institutional” setting.

2001

Forbes Ellis served as Tara Home's director from 2001-2003

Katy Perlman
Director
1996-1998

Silvia Wenger Fiscalini
Director
1999-2001

Forbes EllisDirector
2001-2003

Tara Home became an independent non-profit religious organization 501(c)(3) in 2002.

2002

Tara Home trained its first group of volunteer care givers (42 volunteers) at the Cabrillo College Nursing Lab in Aptos, California. The earliest volunteers included Alicia Kennedy and Truus Philipsen, who continue on to become heart and core volunteers for Tara Home.

Sister Veira received an Unsung Hero of Compassion award from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Hands-on care volunteers came from health care backgrounds and beyond, creating the conditions to fill the multitude of roles needed to run a small, volunteer organization. Other Tara Home volunteers would ultimately assume leadership roles at LMB, including Denice Macy (as a hands-on care volunteer, who went on to serve as LMB’s Director) and Tony DeVarco who, through fundraising, established Tara Home’s “Compassion Fund”.

2003

Lennie Kronisch served as Interim Director between 2003-2005.

2005

Sister Veira received an award from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2005 as an Unsung Hero of Compassion.

Karen Schembs served as Director from 2005-2009.

2011

Nicole Macargel served as Tara Home's director from 2011-2014.

Sister MarySpiritual Director

Nicole MacargelDirector 2011-2014

Continuous improvements to the Tara Home cabin over years, including the addition of an enlarged and handicap-accessible bathroom, a new redwood deck and elaborate front staircase, and a paved handicap-accessible rear driveway and path to the front door. Everything was made possible by generous donations by people from all walks of life. Donations pays rent, keeps the lights on, trains, educates, and facilitates transformation on many levels. These come from families of the departed to commemorate their loved one, from meditators, to hikers walking by who felt a connection with the little blue sign that says Tara Home.

Tara Home became a probationary study group of FPMT* in 2013.

Today

If you have read this far, thank you. I am so glad you found your way here.

For decades now, volunteers have been offering a profound service to those in their last incarnate days. This is a special relationship we honor and treasure, walking with our guests as they leave the life they knew. The Tara Home cabin has become unlike any other. You can still feel so much love, so much presence, so much service in this tiny space surrounded by soaring redwoods.

This can only be done through the support of people like you, reading this right now, and donating to the Compassion Fund of Tara Home.

Alicia Kennedy, RN
Tara Home Director

Celebrating Our Partners

The legacy continues...

... with you, today.

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