Ballerina Maria Tallchief & Author Make Choices

“I made the right choice when I became an accredited T’ai Chi Chih teacher in April 1995.” This is the first sentence of an article published in the December 1995 Vital Force, and it still applies to my life in April 2013. I was 60 then and am now going on 78.

In May 2004 I began volunteer teaching TCC at Sunrise Assisted Living. Recently retired from Columbia College, I had the time and inclination to want to help others escape the feelings of inadequacy and physical, mental and emotional problems that had plagued me until I began practicing TCC with my beloved mentor, Hannah Hedrick. Little did I know at the time that I would experience so many miraculous benefits and also witness them in others. 

Having been blessed with a loving grandmother, I had always sought out the aging population for love and wisdom. I found this love and wisdom again, when Maria Tallchief, one of America’s first great prima ballerinas, became a resident at Sunrise. She soon became one of my most ardent and devoted students. Her favorite movement was “Six Healing Sounds,” which she practiced daily. 

Through the years, Maria and I became more than teacher and student; we became close friends who admired one another’s creative abilities. (In no way am I saying that I was in the same league as her, but she made me feel that I was.) In a reference letter she wrote for me in 2006, she said: “I have enjoyed learning and receiving the energy of the Chi and other healthful benefits from the practice. Paula is a dedicated teacher who shows her knowledge of the subject and teaches with compassion, patience, and humor to her students (many of whom are physically challenged) and they have all shown progress and feel better from her understanding of their individual needs.”

In “When It Is Time,” published in The Vital Force in May 2009, Justin wrote, “Death is not an unusual event; it will happen to every one alive today, so it is not really something to grieve over. Actually, grief is something for the survivors; we will miss the one who is departed.” Maria passed away on April 11 at age 88, and her survivors miss her.