Joanne Susan Andrews

Ratnakara Andrews, “Ra” to most, “Joanne” to some, far surpassed what is possible to capture in a column of text. Thoroughly committed to conscious living, a path realized through free expression, compassion, introspection, environmental justice, and embracing one’s true nature, she spent much of her life cultivating those traits in community wherever she went. Born December 23, 1954, in Rochester, New York, Joanne Susan Andrews stayed on the east coast until young adulthood, then moving to Oregon where she was introduced to a cherished guru who gave her the name Ratnakara. Following Highway 1, Ra spent time along the California coast, and then in Tennessee before making her way to us in Colorado.

Those of us behind the pen were introduced to Ra roundabouts 2008 and speak to a relatively recent chapter in a life rich in experience and adventure. A natural mentor, Ra helped guide many young souls through the misjudgments and mishaps of early adulthood, generously doling out advice and care packages. Despite her past light-footed cross-country moves, her home was always warmly inviting, lovingly decorated, with everything made her own in some small way. She maintained that taking care of one’s self is a fundamental act of self-respect and encouraged clean eating, using the good lotion, and always keeping a sense of what might be possible if we think outside the mainstream. Her best medicine was a firm talk and a good spread of fine cheese. Her closing blessing was always to “take good care.”

She is survived by the community of those she touched, including Johnathan Martin, Kelly Fuentes and Tim Tash, Erica and Joe Lujan, Natasha and Al Trout, Jodie Dunhill , Sandy Dohlman, Amina Syed, the Singh Family, and Jess Nemeth, as well as by those in the numerous and overlapping circles of spiritual seekers and natural food eaters from East to West coasts, by the Dorsland baobab tree (a ~2,100-year-old, 14.3-meter-tall baobab located south of Namibia's Khaudum National Park), and above all, by the characters and ideas she wrote so passionately about in her novel, True Nature, published October of 2021.