Doris Maranda 1937-2022 “an embodied soul”

Doris Maranda
1937 – 2022
“an embodied soul”

“I am very grateful for my life, for my wonderful, supportive & loving family & friends & all the people I have encountered in my life. As well, I honour my body which has allowed me to experience all the life and challenges that have come my way both externally & internally. I leave this world with no regrets. And I offer to all the troubled beings in our world much peace and the ability to forgive and rejoice in the life we have been given, including honouring and treating with respect and gratitude all that Mother Earth has to offer us.”

Doris was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. At 13, the challenge of polio to her body and sense of self started her on a quest about life and the nature of the body. She married Claude Dosdall and they moved to Vancouver where they had four children: Claude, Sherry, Del and Doug. The ‘70s brought a lot of change: the family took a 6-month van trip to Mexico & Guatemala, Claude and Doris separated, and Doris moved with the kids to Cortes Island, where she had attended workshops at Cold Mountain Institute (the future Hollyhock).

Doris went back to university and attained an MA in Humanistic Psychology. In 1989, the year after she moved to Bowen Island, where she taught somatic workshops, the challenge came in the form of post-polio syndrome. In her search for answers, she discovered Continuum. “I was an introvert but so passionate about Continuum. It brought me out of myself.”

After taking a 12-day workshop in California with Emilie Conrad and Susan Harper, founders of Continuum Movement, Doris became committed to teaching this somatic approach to movement in Vancouver. She became a certified somatic therapy practitioner and led workshops and did individual counseling before she retired and moved to Nanaimo in 2019.

Diagnosed with cancer in 2021, Doris came to acceptance surprisingly quickly, and as the illness progressed, began to shape her dying as creatively as she’d shaped her living. She passed away on Nov 20, 2022 surrounded by family and friends.

“My life has been a series of moments, each one a journey toward the end. Now is the time to let them all go.”

A celebration of life service is planned; details will be posted later here on dorismaranda.com. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to WAVAW.

If you’d like to share your own memories or photos of Doris you can do that on the Book of Memories.

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