Mark's Journey
A Personal Welcome
You don't have to go through this alone—we can figure it out together. Whether you're navigating cognitive changes in your family or questioning what our culture tells us about dementia, these are breadcrumbs to help you find your way. This is my story of discovery, but more importantly, it's an invitation into accompaniment.
The Discovery That Changed Everything
"Remember, every day is a passing day of your life. And it's very precious. Whoever you are with, make moments with them very special. It is not in our power to measure that length of opportunity. It does good to your soul and there will be no regrets"
- Betty Jenkins
This simple wisdom became our compass for seven years of discovering how we accompany each other by making moments special together.
My Story: From Innovation to Accompaniment
I'm a storyteller and innovator whose journey to becoming an advocate for cognitive care took an unexpected path. As the creator of TeamEverest—an immersive leadership experience used by hundreds of organizations worldwide—I pioneered using story as a vehicle for change. This narrative expertise became the foundation for my most personal work: developing "Accompaniment," an approach that complements essential caregiving by fostering deeper connection through cognitive decline.
Born in the Australian outback and now writing from my cabin beside the wild Magnetawan River in Ontario, I abandoned the corporate world to fully immerse myself in caregiving. What I discovered would reshape me as much as it supported my mother Betty during our seven-year journey through dementia and cancer.
The Seven-Year Journey: Swimming Upstream
While professional caregivers provided some of the support for daily needs, I recognized something equally essential was missing—the relational dimension that maintains personhood when memory falters. My work stands at what I call "the frontlines of the battle for the North American soul"—challenging a culture that has reduced personhood to productivity while outsourcing much of the care for our most vulnerable.
Through firefly fields at midnight, dawn choruses with birds, and Rouge River outings where lions' roars echo across the valley, Betty and I discovered how to make moments special, and for Betty to stay beautiful till the end of time. We learned that accompaniment doesn't replace necessary caregiving but offers something equally vital: the recognition that we must learn to walk alongside our loved ones, not just manage their decline.
"Mark's approach was unique and refreshing. He managed to see past the dementia to the person beyond the illness. He was swimming upstream against conventional attitudes, fearless in defending his mom as a whole and unique person." - Sue Hutton, RN, Palliative Care Specialist
Finding My Ancestors
Thirty-five years ago, in the early days of what would become a lifelong friendship, Ron Evans—a Soto/Chippewa-Cree elder and master storyteller—offered me guidance that would reshape my understanding of my own roots. "You must find your people, your indigenous ancestors," Ron told me. "They are the Celts and the peasant folk of Europe. My teachings are universal, but the ceremonies and ancestral knowledge must also come from your ancestors."
Growing up in Edmonton without relatives in my life, I had believed I had no "ancestors." Ron was the first to awaken me to the fact that being one of the Celts gave me an ancestral past worth discovering.
Over the decades, Ron's teachings became woven into my understanding of life and care. Two insights proved particularly foundational: that beauty serves as the antidote to difficulty, and that every story has a place. These principles would later illuminate the foundations of the accompaniment approach.
I spent years participating in the Native community of Southern Ontario—sweat lodges, tipi ceremonies that I hosted on my land and at ceremonial gatherings throughout Ontario. When I introduced Ron and his partner Jose to my community, Ron became an elder to them during his visits to Ontario. This immersion in traditional ways of knowing prepared me to recognize patterns that Western culture had forgotten.
The wisdom Ron shared about consciousness, community, and the sacred dimensions of care would prove essential when I found myself walking beside Betty through cognitive changes. Ron's understanding that "help is always available" and his teaching about "observing with delighted fascination" are inherent to Accompaniment.
The Deeper Pattern: A Spear Through Time
What I discovered through this journey was something that took years to fully understand—a pattern that stretched back much further than my own lifetime.
Each of us is the very tip of a mighty spear that pierces time. Each of us, whether we know it or not, is the sharpened head of an arrow that has flown through eons. We see this speck of life we inhabit and don't know that encoded within us is the entire journey of the time-traveling projectile that brought us here.
It is distinctly possible that for a thousand years, my family has followed an alternating pattern: doctor, priest, doctor, priest—like turtles all the way down. My brother is a world-renowned physician, my father was a surgeon, my grandfather a priest, my great-grandfather a Welsh general practitioner, and before that, another priest.
One day, sitting in a hotel bar before my brother was about to speak to an audience of medical professionals, I confessed: "I'm the black sheep, the odd one out in the family lineage."
My brother looked at me thoughtfully. "What do you mean? Jenkins means 'the storyteller,' and Verity—our grandmother's maiden name—means 'truth.' You are exactly what our name means."
Then I realized something I'd missed all along. One thousand years ago, my ancestors were the Druids—the doctors and priests of the ancient Celts. The Druids weren't just healers and spiritual guides; they were also the storytellers, the keepers of the bardic tradition.
The Triple Gift in Modern Form
Through the Accompaniment Series and AccompanyAI, I live this ancient triple gift in contemporary form:
The Healer: Creating approaches that support cognitive well-being and family healing through difficult passages
The Priest: Recognizing the sacred dimensions of accompaniment and the spiritual aspects of care that transcend medical management
The Storyteller/Bard: Preserving and transmitting wisdom through narrative, helping families discover their own stories of connection and meaning
The spear that carried this intention through a millennium of doctors and priests has found its mark in my work. What began as business innovation evolved into caregiving, which revealed itself as cultural healing work that serves something much larger than individual families.
What This Means for You
The Accompaniment approach doesn't just help people navigate cognitive change—it offers our culture a different way of understanding aging, vulnerability, interdependence, and what makes us essentially human. No two journeys through cognitive decline are the same, but within the wisdom gathered from this path, there are breadcrumbs to help you find your way.
"Your message offers a window of hope... that we can take what we have and build from dust... to give a face to people who are changing... a nudge to have a different view, a creative view... rather than the restraints of a diagnosis. Your story contains the new pattern."
- Dr. Rick Irvin, Palliative Care Physician
A Story That Travels Through Time
Whether through the Accompaniment Series books or AccompanyAI technology, the goal remains the same: to show that we don't have to go through this alone. We can figure it out together, one special moment at a time.
"There was not a dry eye in the house as Mark Jenkins shared one of the most powerful and honest stories I have ever heard. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. A tale of this kind of love is as rare as the humans in it. Mark my humble words, this story, that your heart wrote, will travel around the world. It will become a global balm and medicine for our elders and those who accompany them on the brave and final journey home."
- Tracy Erin Smith, founder of SoulO Theatre Company
Connect with Me
I lead workshops on relational care approaches and speak about how walking alongside someone through their most vulnerable passages often becomes one of life's most direct paths to becoming fully human.
"If it's possible that I'm the tip of the spear that traveled through time from the ancients to NOW? Is it possible that you are as well?"
