Victoria woman transforms from international model to inspiring advocate after developing rare syndrome
Although she shows me a picture of herself as child posing in a dress, Tara Moss says she was actually a tomboy who took pride in wearing jeans with scuffed knees.
“The other girls in my classes would say they wanted to be princesses or ballerinas,” Tara remembers with a smile. “I would say, ‘I want to be Stephen King.’”
While Tara dreamed of delighting readers with dark stories, others kept telling the six-foot tall 14-year-old to become a model.
“That gave me a very strong, albeit skewed, idea of what my worth was and what I should be focusing on,” Tara says.
So Tara became a professional and posed for international publications. But the success was bittersweet. Her pictures were also gracing the walls of the hospital room where her proud mom Janni was being treated for cancer.
“I remember waking up the next day and I couldn’t believe the sun came up and my mom wasn’t there,” Tara says.
She calls the death of her 43-year-old mom a turning point in her life.
“I felt like I needed to make something of myself,” Tara explains. “And be worth that belief she had in me.”
So Tara moved to Europe and modelled for more than a decade before — at the age of 25 — her first novel became a bestseller.
“Writing was a life-long dream,” Tara smiles. “And finally it was happening.”
Tara ended up writing 13 books (published in 19 countries in a dozen languages) and using her fame to support international human rights (becoming a UNICEF Ambassador and advocate for women and children’s rights).
She also started a family, before her dream life turned into a nightmare.
“If you’re in pain all the time, and I am, it’s really hard,” she says. “This has taken me to the edge.”
For the past six years, Tara’s been suffering from the rare, debilitating, and often excruciating condition known as CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome).
“The first three years, I did retreat into myself. I needed to identify what was happening and accept it. That’s a process,” Tara says. “And then I had to start finding my strength again, know that it was going to be different.”
Armed with a cane she named Wolfie, and later a wheelchair she dubbed Hera (after the Queen of the Greek gods), Tara became a disability advocate.
“There’s still so much I can offer,” Tara says, before detailing the work she’s done to advocate for people with disability and accessibility concerns that recently earned her the honourary citizen award from her hometown of Victoria.
“There’s still so much I can do.”
Along with fighting to right what’s wrong for others, Tara is striving to re-focus herself from grieving what’s been lost to being grateful for what remains.
“I am so grateful,” Tara says, before showing me pictures of her smiling and embracing her husband, daughter and dog.
“And maybe grateful in a way I just couldn’t see the way to before I became disabled.”
Maybe grateful in the way Tara’s mom felt when she started teaching her girl how precious this life is — a perspective Tara will now never stop offering her own daughter.
“You have to keep going. You never know where life’s going to take you,” Tara says. “It could be so beautiful tomorrow.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Demonstrators kicked out of Ontario legislature for disruption after failed keffiyeh vote
A group of demonstrators were kicked out of the legislature after a second NDP motion calling for unanimous consent to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh failed to pass.
RCMP uncovers alleged plot by 2 Montreal men to illegally sell drones, equipment to Libya
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
Government agrees to US$138.7M settlement over FBI's botching of Larry Nassar assault allegations
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
BREAKING Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Man wanted in connection with deadly shooting in Toronto tops list of most wanted fugitives in Canada
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
Doctors ask Liberal government to reconsider capital gains tax change
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.