I was fortunate enough to share a room with Laura for the first twelve years of my life.  I will always treasure the memories of playing with our trolls together for endless weekend mornings, on the rug that lay right between our beds.  I will also remember when Laura used to push the dresser that was between our beds against my legs whenever I tried to make my bed first.

I will always remember being the one to follow my sister around the world to meet her in Kyoto, Japan; Juneau, Alaska; and Yellowstone National Park all before I turned 20 years old.  One memory of our time in Japan that stands out even more so than seeing the majestic Mount Fuji, visiting MANY Buddhist temples and meeting Laura’s Japanese family and community of friends.  The memory is when Laura took me to her calligraphy lesson, she told me that as an observer I would need to sit on my knees and be still for the full session so that I would not offend her master instructor.  I dutifully did not move a muscle despite the numbness I felt in my legs.  In my younger years I always felt as if I had to listen to whatever my sister said.

I will always remember the years that we sang together during middle school and high school in our temple junior choir.  Through our singing connection we sang a prayer at Madeline’s wedding and we sang again at the Sabbath evening service before my wedding.  Our singing connection was recently rekindled as Laura’s cognitive abilities changed.  Two weekend ago at my mother’s 80^th birthday celebration and during the last few days of Laura’s life, when she could no longer speak – we were able to sing together. Music was a way that we were able to connect.

I will always remember and be inspired by Laura’s strong will and determination.  Her determination has been and will remain a motivating influence for me and for many of us as we carry on.

I feel blessed to have had Laura as my support during the birth of my second lovely daughter, Sophie.  And I feel blessed and privileged to have been one of those who shared and supported Laura during her final days and hours as she peacefully died at home.

During the recent high holidays as I was praying and thinking about Laura, I came upon this poem in the prayer book that spoke to me.  I’d like to share it with you -

         Birth is a beginning

         And death a destination.

         And life is a journey:

         From childhood to maturity

         And you to age:

         From innocence to awareness

         And ignorance to knowing:

         From foolishness to discretion

                  And then, perhaps, to wisdom:

         From weakness to strength

         Or strength to weakness-

                  And, often, back again;

         From health to sickness

                  And back, we pray, to health again;

         From offense to forgiveness,

         From loneliness to love,

         From joy to gratitude,

         From pain to compassion,

         And grief to understanding-

                  From fear to faith:

         From defeat to defeat to defeat-

         (or in Laura’s case from victory to victory to victory)

         Until, looking backward or ahead, we see that victory lies

         Not as some high place along the way,

         But in having made the journey, stage by stage,

                  A sacred pilgrimage,

         Birth is a beginning

         And death a destination.

         And life is a journey,

         A sacred pilgrimage-

                  To life everlasting.

Through Laura’s journey with her illness I had the opportunity to get much closer to her and to her family, Jo, Isaiah and Iris.  I will always cherish the time and extra bonding that Laura and I we were able to share over the past four years.

I will miss Laura on the rest of my life journey.  I am sure that her spirit is now whole and finally at peace.  I love you Laura.

Laura Mann IS the Dhatri Foundation. She is the strength, the beauty and the voice behind it and it is only right to share her story with all of you.

Before founding Dhatri, Laura spent over 20 years making her way through the country partaking in an assortment of women’s health related tasks. Since her freshman year at Yale, Laura knew she wanted to study and work in women’s health and after spending her junior year in Japan, she decided she wanted to be, as she puts it, “a midwife on the frontier” of women’s health. After first receiving a degree in nursing, Laura later pursued her nurse midwife certification after working in Washington State and making some connections in Alaska. In Alaska, Laura met a couple who had just received a grant to open a group practice in Mat-Su Valley. They asked her to investigate and assist with their endeavor but as this fell through, she headed further east where she helped a nurse midwife start the first freestanding birth center in all of Alaska. This was the true beginning of her work as a midwife.

In 2005, after 13 years of solo practice as a midwife, Laura went on sabbatical, spending  her time exploring different alternative and complementary therapies such as yoga and Ayurvedic medicine. Toward the end of this sabbatical, Laura learned that she had breast cancer. She took this as a sign and decided her time as a midwife was over and it was time to move onto something different and something more personal.

Laura wanted to start her own practice and initially, she hoped to call her practice, a place for all ages, It Takes a Village. Upon hearing this, Julia Brock, a healthcare provider at Maitri, heard about Laura and her idea and they sat down together to discuss their common dream, soon to be called Eastern View Integrative Medicine. After finding a beautiful piece of land in South Burlington, Julie and Laura pooled their resources and brought together every practitioner in the building, with the hope that they would learn as they went.

Laura loves being with people and she loves even more to help them heal. When her health told her that she could no long spend endless nights, one-on-one with laboring mothers, she knew she could still find a way to act as a midwife but in a different way. It was her time to broaden and start something new. For Laura, the next step was creating a small, nonprofit foundation to support the new larger center. The Dhatri Foundation, named after the Tantric goddess of compassion, hope and healing who is often seen cradling an infant, was a vision that Laura hoped would help the Burlington community come to understand and appreciate the beauty and benefits of complementary treatments, as well as supply compassionate movement classes beyond the usual yoga and Pilates. After meeting Cara, Ada, Julie and Nyarkoa in a variety of amusing settings (Laura met Cara at the Volvo dealership where they were both having their identical cars repaired, and where upon hearing about Laura’s new endeavor with Dhatri, Cara said, “Okay, I’m interested, can I work with you?”), Dhatri began its work. While Laura and Nyarkoa may be the dreamers and the feelers, they have the (mostly) organized go-getters Cara, Ada and Julie to keep them on track and moving forward.

“Coming to work at Dhatri is fun,” says Laura. It is wonderful because everyone believes in a common mission. Although the workspace is extremely cozy, it’s still great, everything about it, Laura explains. It is visible in their monthly board meetings when mid-meeting, everyone must take a break and go cuddle and feed their babies. “It is clear,” explains Laura, “that we are truly doing women’s work”.

In Laura’s mind, the future of Dhatri holds many great possibilities. She hopes that it will expand to become an integrative providers network; a resource for people who are looking for complementary care. She hopes that Dhatri can run an even wider variety and greater number of movement arts classes with many more opportunities for children, and of course, she also hopes to soon break even.

In Laura’s own words, “I hope that the foundation flourishes. And I hope that everybody can come and sample and experience it because it’s really a unique, special place.”

Note: Some shameless (and hopeful) self-promotion

During her interview, Laura couldn’t decide which her favorite Dhatri class was but she was torn between the Nia classes and all of the yoga classes – take a few and decide for yourself!!