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In Loving Memory of Tara O'Connor

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It is with a very heavy heart that we announce the untimely passing of beloved friend, mother, co-worker and daughter, Tara O’Connor. As we work together to pick up the pieces, we ask for your sincere and heartfelt donations. Tara was a bright light in an often dark world; dedicated, forthright and hardworking. Her cutting wit and welcoming demeanor will be remembered by all those who knew her best. She is survived by her husband Ryan and 4 month old baby, Mackenzie Rose.

Tara was an inspiration to us all and we invite you to read the passage below beautifully written by our colleague and friend, Maxwell Cohen. 




The thing is, sometimes things just happen. Sometimes it’s as simple as walking by a display in a department store window, and you find yourself walking away with a scarf you didn’t need, but you smile, because you’re happy it happened. Other times you lock eyes with someone in a coffee shop, and then you’re at the movies and your hands meet in the popcorn tub. And then, fireworks. Sometimes the sun sneaks behind a cloud and fills the whole sky with orange and purple and blue-red life. That’ the nuance of life, these little surprises: the unplanned, the unforeseeable, the sudden.

And the thing is, life would be remarkably less wonderful without these occurrences. Some of the world’s magic would be gone. But our world is, if nothing else, a just world. For these things to exist, there has to be an opposite edge, a dark specter, something sharp and bracing that puts those sunsets in perspective, something that makes you feel like you’re bleeding, the way those locked eyes across the street can feel like a bandage. That phantom edge is sharp and when it slices, it slices everyone. Deep, all of us at once.

We were sliced deeper than we knew we ever could’ve been with the unexpected and unreal and unjust passing of the beautiful and kind, matronly and sarcastic, biting and hilarious Tara O’Connor. No number of sunsets can make up for the loss our community now must endure. That her family now must endure. She was ripped from us, yes, and we’ll grieve, yes, but look further. She was ripped from Ryan, her husband who loved her more than the world (I mean, you saw how they looked at each other), and from the unabashed joy of her life, 4-month old Mackenzie Rose O’Connor, owner of her nose and her smile and her ever-calm demeanor, who will have to grow up without knowing what we all know so assuredly and so intensely: that her mother was a beacon of light, a firm hand, and a laugh everywhere. Of course, in time she will learn these things. She won’t have a choice: Tara inspired a legacy of friends and devoted colleagues, enamored family members and strangers pulled in to her dizzying orbit. As long as these people inhabit the Earth, they will ensure that Tara’s memory, the memory of all she was and all she meant to so many, will be clear and forever ingrained in Mackenzie’s mind. We must make sure of this because we will have no choice. It will be for our sake as much as hers.

Mackenzie Rose, a small angel with blue eyes who Tara would always say (over and again to anyone listening) made her feel a love unlike any she’d ever known, and Ryan, the love of Tara’s life and a man of true kindness and grace, need our support. Support them we shall.

Any donation to this page is a donation towards the slow stabilization of Ryan and Mackenzie’s lives together. A pain like this is unyielding, and they will both need time to process, to come to each other, to move past this tragedy. With our support, we can ensure they have a financial safety net, yes, but more than that, we can ensure that they know how much their Tara, and they all, mean to us, and to our community. We have the opportunity to build a community of love and compassion around Ryan and Mackenzie and doing so is both our duty to them and our duty to restoring balance to the world. We, and the world, have lost a bright, beautiful love with Tara’s loss. Let our response be just as bright, just as beautiful, just as warm. Although, as we all know, we can never quite do her justice. She loomed that large, burned that bright, loved that strong.

Remember how lucky we all were to know her. How lucky we all are to remember her.
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    Organizer and beneficiary

    Matt Soutra
    Organizer
    Boston, MA
    Ryan OConnor
    Beneficiary

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