She Will Never Drown.
A psychiatrist said that about me when I was 13 years old.
I have spent the last 66 years proving her right.
— Kathy Tarochione
Founder & CEO, The Golden Life Community LLC
I Was 13 Years Old When My Father Died
I was the black sheep of the family. My brother was the golden child. My mother was a mystery to me. And my father — the person who made me feel like I belonged — was gone. I was devastated in a way that a 13 year old girl does not have words for.
My mother took me to a psychiatrist named Virginia Barlow. I sat with her for three years — working through the grief, the confusion, the feeling of being lost in a family where I never quite fit. And at the end of those three years Virginia Barlow told my mother something that has followed me through every hard moment of my life since.
She said — "You will never need to worry about Kathy. She will never drown. She may have to tread water from time to time to stay afloat. But she will never drown."
I did not know it then. But those words became my compass. Every time life tried to take me under — and it tried many times — I would hear them.
She will never drown.
And somehow. Some way. I made it through.
I Have Noticed Something About My Life.
I’ve noticed a pattern in my life.
When something hard happens, I don’t avoid it. I feel it. Fully.
And then something in me says: this will pass. You will be okay.
And it always does.
After that, I look for the solution — not just for me, but for others too.
That’s why I’ve always built things. Not for “business.” For meaning.
Every struggle became something I could turn into help for someone else.
The Golden Life Community LLC is the most personal version of that yet.
I am 79 years old. I have COPD. Congestive heart failure. Rheumatoid arthritis. I live on oxygen 24 hours a day and use a walker to get around.
I was told to put my affairs in order in 2022.
Then I got COVID pneumonia. Had a stroke. Spent two and a half weeks in the ICU certain I was going to die. Then long COVID attacked my pancreas. I lost 80% of my hair and gained 40 pounds in two months.
I lost my husband Tark in 2010. I moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2020 knowing almost nobody. I have built this entire company from my recliner with a laptop and a will that refuses to quit.
And in 1996 I traveled to Calcutta and met Mother Teresa. She said something to me that I have never forgotten.
"I never look back. When I look forward I see what is right in front of me. If I see someone in need I act on it."
That is how I have tried to live my life.
Not looking back at the wreckage. Looking forward at who needs help right now.
And acting on it.
Why I Built All Of This.
I have a strong thirst for knowledge that has never left me. When I face a serious challenge I research everything — deeply, comprehensively, obsessively — until I understand it completely. And then I design a solution.
I have done it many times in my life.
I have started with a blank sheet of paper and created solutions that people are still using today.
The Golden Life Community LLC is no different.
I looked around at what was happening to women like me — isolated, invisible, unwell, afraid, losing their stories, losing their voices, being managed instead of celebrated — and I saw a crisis that nobody was solving.
So I started with a blank sheet of paper. And I built The Golden Life Community. Not because I wanted to build a company.
Because I believe we are all connected. I believe we all matter. I believe we should all WANT to take care of each other.
Otherwise — why are we on this earth?
If not to help each other. To grow together. To make sure nobody drowns alone.
A Few Things You Should Know About Me.
I built this company from a recliner. I have a 19-year-old dog named Charlie who has outlived most of the predictions made about him — which tells you everything you need to know about the kind of house we run.
I have a stuffed dog named Tark — named after my late husband — who sits with me when the nights get long.
I dance naked in front of my mirror every single morning.
I give Golden Hugs to every worker at Sam's Club who asks for one.
I once looked deep into my own eyes in a mirror until I cried — because that is when I knew I had seen my soul.
I am not a guru. I am not a therapist. I am not a life coach.
I am a woman who has been through it.
Who found her way through every single time.
Who built a system from her own survival so you never have to find your way through yours alone.
That is who I am.
That is why I am still here.
Still building. Still becoming. Still refusing to drown.
If I Can Do This From Where I Am Sitting
—You Can Begin From Exactly Where You Are.
I am 79 years old. I am on oxygen. I use a walker.
I built all of this from a recliner in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Seven AI tools. Two live apps. A broadcasting network. A legacy preservation ecosystem. A physical community being planned. A global movement taking shape one Golden Babe at a time.
All of it.
From here. Because Virginia Barlow was right. I will never drown. And neither will you.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
"I will never drown. I will never be the one to go down. I will make it through."
— Kathy Tarochione
Founder & CEO, The Golden Life Community LLC
Minds First. Homes Forever. Dreams Realized.™