Our beautiful, talented and smart McKenzie departed this planet peacefully in her sleep at her home in Portland, Oregon on January 22, 2022, at the young age of 36 after a long illness. She was surrounded by her loved ones including her mother, father and brother who will miss her terribly.

McKenzie was born in the small town of Montrose, Colorado, on April 14th when her parents lived in Telluride, Colorado. At the age of 2, the family moved to Denver, Colorado, where she attended high school and college. After college, she located near her parents’ home in Portland.

McKenzie was a lifelong learner. She completed her bachelor’s degree (BS) at the University of Colorado in Writing with distinction as well as a master’s degree (MS) in writing and book publishing at Portland State University. After all that schoolwork, she decided to head back to college to become a licensed acupuncturist and obtained a master’s degree (MS) in Acupuncture from the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She had also studied yoga and was a Ph.D. candidate studying Holistic Nutrition. A hard worker at a young age, beginning with babysitting and working as a barista during her high school years.

She was a vegetarian for all of her life and vegan for the past 14 or so years. She loved all animals especially sloths and loved all things pickled and mushrooms of all varieties. The simplest pleasures in life brought great joy to McKenzie as she had a love of travel, cooking, of being a writer, a poet and musician. Her compassionate and sympathetic personality was contagious to everyone she met, and many friends have remarked that she was a “gift”. “She brought great light to an otherwise dark space”. We hope you can now rest in peace McKenzie. You will be missed more than can be imagined.

McKenzie is survived by her mother, Ruby; her father, Peter; two brothers, Aleph and Calvin; her grandmother Terri; her aunts, Judy, Susan, and Vicki; two nephews, Alex and Loic; and many cousins and friends.