Kaaren Tekla Fladager's Obituary
Kaaren Tekla Fladager
b. August 30, 1955 – d. October 19, 2015
Kaaren Tekla Fladager died peacefully in the early morning of October 19, at home under hospice care. She had just turned 60 years old and succumbed to metastatic breast cancer. Kaaren is survived by her daughter Sophia Tekla Nieser and husband William Charles Nieser, her sister Karol Gardner and family, brother Kyle, brother-in-law John Murata and family and her parents Jo and Arne Fladager. She left this life with incredible clarity and appreciation for her friends and loved ones and is tremendously missed by us all. Her interment will be at the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, close to her sister Kristen Murata.
Kaaren received a BA in Art from San Jose State and a MA in Arts & Consciousness from JFK University. Throughout her entire life Kaaren pursued her passion for art in many forms from painting, sculpture and drawing to fine leatherwork and jewelry. She both exhibited and sold her work but truthfully the making of it was what was most important to her. Equally important to Kaaren was he own spiritual development. She has maintained a daily practice of meditation since the early 1980’s and was lay-ordained in the Zen Buddhist tradition. For the last 10 years she actively practiced yoga both with teachers and in her studio at home.
Kaaren enjoyed a good adventure, hiking a week long wilderness backpacking trip to celebrate her 40th birthday and skydiving to celebrate her 50th. She has traveled to Japan, France and Italy and took Sophia to India for a month of volunteer work in Dharamsala in 2014. She was a lover of nature and the outdoors who rescued a number of dogs and cats from the streets in Oakland. Kaaren’s favorite charity/cause is the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and she was an active follower of their activities as well as a financial supporter. The family requests that in lieu of flowers a donation in her honor would be warmly appreciated.
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