arontius | Entries tagged with serena

.....Today was Dianne Monreal's (THL Serena Eame) 59th birthday. I find that hard to believe. Time goes by so fast. If things had been otherwise we would have had a Bar-B-Que today and teased her incessantly about her advanced age. To which she would have smiled and then gotten her revenge later in some clever fashion.

.....I stopped briefly at the grave site in Bremerton. The area where she is buried is starting to fill up around her. But it still has that nice view of the bay and Rocky Point. The sun was out, but the afternoon was humid. I stood for a little bit and remembered her and her passing.

.....September Crown, 2000. Caitlin Spenser autocratted. Another who passed on entirely too early.

.....It was a weekend profound in many ways. Duke Jade from the West was in attendance and made that otherworldly announcement of fighting all in the Crown lists in honour of Dianne. A Lady whom he had never met in person before that weekend. I remember being in the hospital room when he arrived and watching him as he stood gazing at Dianne as she labored with each breath.

.....Everything about that weekend was surreal. The letter written by Caitlin in remembrance of that weekend was put into the Dragon's Laire pages of the 40th Year Domesday Boke for An Tir, for which I am grateful. It is a beautifully written letter.

.....Next year we get to relive September Crown as hosted again by Dragon's Laire. I hope that she will be watching, wherever she is, and live it vicariously in a way she couldn't last time.

.....Happy Birthday, Dianne.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Bedroom.
Current Music: Mindlessness On The Tele.

.....Yesterday was the 57th birthday of Dianne Monreal, known to many of us as THL Serena Eame. She is still missed. When Mom was in Harrison Hospital for all those weeks recently it felt strange being there for a number of reasons, primarily because I still associate the place so strongly with her. I kept turning a hallway corner and expecting to see her in her flowered blouse showing one of the nurses how to do something on the computer. Just like everywhere else she felt it her duty at work in the hospital to kind of take care of everyone she met.

.....I took a quick side trip to the cemetery over on Kitsap Way. They removed the tree a couple of years ago, the one near her grave site that had been hit by lightning. They've expanded that end of the fields and cleaned them up quite a bit. I like the fact that it looks more tended and cared for. Although I'm not sure I like it completely as now her grave site is being slowly surrounded by others, being lost in a bunch of others. Lonelier in some ways.

.....One thing that she changed in me by having known her was my attitude towards the Morman Community. Of which I was reminded of on several occasions this last year. It's kind of strangely amusing. Before I knew Dianne I thought of Mormans as some sort of wacky interpretation of the Christian Community, the ones who wore the 'special underwear'. Mainly someone to you avoided when they tried to visit you in your home. Or sigh in frustration when they made you late on the way out the door.

.....When Dianne's health really took that final turn for the worse, one of things from those times I remember was how much they came in and took care of us. They came by constantly to see if we needed anything at all, trips to the store, to the hospital. Out for a walk. They would bring food in by the gross bagful. So much so that Victor, Dianne's son, finally had to tell them to please stop doing that. :-)

.....The Morman's have such a pragmatic view towards death. I'm not a convert, but their attitude can be a comfort and definitely a push to move on with life. And while I'm not a convert, just hearing the fact that a person I've just met is a Morman doesn't automatically move that person into the 'strange person' column in my mind.

.....Tolerance. One of the best lessons I learned from Dianne.

.....57 years. You left us way too early, Dianne. But you are still in our thoughts. Happy Birthday.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Bedroom.
Current Music: Mindlessness On The Tele.

.....Today, Dianne Wasser-Monreal, known to us in the SCA as THL Serena Eame, would have turned 56. We would have had a huge party to celebrate (either last weekend or this weekend :-)) and would have had lots of stories to tell, akin to the party coloured saran wrap stories. :-)

.....Even though she died almost eight years ago now, there are still memories of her all over the house. From the celtic music I listen to in the car, to pictures on the wall, to dishes in the kitchen, to a pair of her glasses that hang from the sunshade in Lobelia. I think that even with the final implementation of the 100-item rule in the house I'll find some way to keep a small handful of mementos of her life and the impact it had on me.

.....If you look on one of the shelves in the Computer room you'll see a leather tankard with a withered cloven fruit in it. There are ribbons and bells and other things hanging from it as it rests on a stick. I can not remember now what type of fruit it actually was, but the cloves seem to have petrified it. :-)

.....The reason I think that I hold that item most dearly is that she was holding it the first time I met her. Wielding it is actually more like it. :-) She was the autocrat for a Last Chance feast out at Long Branch. She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was the Feast-O-Crat and Serena was literally dancing around the tables trying to keep everyone entertained and distracted from the terrible food that was set before them.

.....When she whipped around the table at which I was seated a little key on a ribbon that dangled from the cloved fruit almost hit me and I asked her what the purpose of the key was. She proceeded to tell me that it was the key to her heart. I, being not so bright in those days, mused out loud my disappointment that it wasn't the key to her bedroom.

.....I was viciously teasing her of course, and she was taken aback for a second. Not expecting that kind of rudeness at an SCA Feast. But then she grinned, burst out laughing uproariously, and then gave me a wink as she ran away to entertain other guests who were fighting off indigestion.

.....We were good friends for the rest of her life after that.

.....I hope that whatever afterlife in which she exists now is the bestest. She deserves only the best. :-)

.....With Love, Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Bedroom.
Current Music: Traffic Noise.

.....On July 31st, last Tuesday, it was Dianne Wasser-Monreal's birthday. We would have celebrated her 55th birthday. Ever since her death in 2001 it had become a habit of mine to celebrate her birthday with postings to various lists, sonnets in her memory and a visit to her grave-site. None of these things happened this year. In some ways this is completely understandable. I mean, with moving, marriage, new job, change in responsibilities, etc., it is easy to see why this happened.

.....A small part of me is sad though. Part of the reason that I was always so adamant that I adhere to that ceremony was to honour her memory and remind people that she existed. She had a tough life where she was forgotten and abused by a handful of people whose treatment of her affected her deeply. I was determined that she not be forgotten and the goodness that she represented and the joy that she created unto all she touched would continue always.

.....I did not remember her birthday, but I remember her now with happiness. I think that I will take a few minutes out of a day this week and visit her gravesite and remember her in her glory. She was a good person and a good friend.

.....Happy Birthday Dianne! Happy Birthday wishes unto The Honourable Lady Serena Eame! May you forever live in our hearts.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Living Room.
Current Music: Mindlessness on the Tele.

.....Greetings All,

.....July 31st is the birthday of The Honourable Lady Serena Eame, known in the Modern World as Dianne Wasser-Monreal. She would have been 54 years young today. Even though she departed this world some six years ago this September, she will always remain alive in my heart. I humbly offer the below Sonnet in her memory.

This lady of flame loved by Gods above.
Was taken early by Their jealousy.
The fires she stoked that filled our lives with love.
Are dark and cold, proof of this fallacy.

Her words would wrap around us as a glove
To give hugs of contentment and warm cheer.
And the peace of the soul brought by this dove
Would bring forth joy and freedom from all fear.

Even in the dark the memory's dear.
Of greatness wrought by this lady's hand.
Its power will last 'til the worlds ends near
To strengthen all hearts throughout all this land.

As long as the sun shines hot on my brow.
She will remain forever my deep vow.

.....Happy Birthday Serena!

.....With Love, Arontius / Aaron.

Current Mood: hopeful

.....Last night I got an e-mail telling me that a mutual friend had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. This person was not someone I knew real well, but I had worked and played around them in the past, so there was still a connection there. I started thinking about it and then Master Julian's passing and all of a sudden I was transported back to Labor Day weekend, 2000.

.....September Crown. I had just finished loading all the gear into the car. Bjorn was due over in a little bit to help take the rest of the stuff to site. The phone rang. I had been expecting it. Dianne had gone to the hospital the day before and I told her to try and catch me before I headed to site (if she was awake). She had been going to the hospital off and on for months. The spots in her lungs affected her breathing from time to time and she would go in for a few days for breathing treatments and then come home. I didn't give any more thought to it than that and expected her to come out to site sometime that weekend at least for a few hours.

.....When I picked up the phone it was her, but she sounded different. Something was up. She told me that she was going to stay in the hospital another couple of days. All of a sudden I KNEW. This was it. She wasn't coming home. That knowledge hit hard, very hard. I was stunned. She kept talking but I wasn't hearing what she was saying. And all of a sudden I started crying, hard. I don't do that very often, it just isn't something I feel comfortable doing. But I was crying uncontrollably.

.....But Dianne, being who she is, knew what to say. She kept her calm. She talked me through it. she consoled me and told me that everything would be O.K. No tears whatsoever. I reached a point where I just became numb. When she realized that I had calmed down and that I wasn't really hearing what she was saying at all anymore, she told me to get my stuff out to site and set up before it became dark. By that time I was seriously just numb. I barely remember what I said. I hung up and started out the door. Bjorn showed up at that time. I don't remember saying anything at all as we loaded the truck up and then went out to site.

.....I set up the pavilion, headed home and just went to bed. All of it in sort of a zombie like state. My mind just shut down on me. The next morning I went to the hospital. By that time she was pumped full of drugs and wasn't conscious any more. For the next 48 hours I sat vigil around the bed as the remainder of her family gathered. Late on Sunday she passed away.

.....I went home and just sat and stared at the wall for the next eight hours or so. I didn't want to break down again and worked hard at it. After that it started slowly getting easier to deal and life went on. But every now and then it hits, the remembrance of those days. In some ways it's just as strong now as it was then. For a time I tried to block it out and just not think of it. But I realized finally that it was much easier if I let myself live through the feelings and emotions and if I just got through it the feelings evened out a lot faster.

.....I miss Dianne terribly sometimes. I could never define the relationship. Sometimes we were just roommates. Sometimes we were partners. One time I even asked her to marry me (she laughed at that and told me to go away). You never really get over some things. It's really a bad cliche, but a true statement. I like very much to think though that she's out there watching me. Laughing at all the stupid things I do and say sometimes. She would have been very proud of me for the weight loss. She would have crowed like a rooster when I admitted into the Pelicans. She was a very good person.

.....with Love, Arontius.