[Darkwood-SCA] White Shield thank-yous
Cassandra Rossignol
cheekymonkey at monkeymanor.net
Mon Mar 17 13:58:37 PDT 2008
I did not enter the lists at White Shield. I didn't earn any awards or
prizes. I wasn't the autocrat, or even on staff. But if you'll indulge
me, I have thank-yous to distribute, just the same.
Due to ongoing health concerns, White Shield was the first event I've
been able to attend since last fall, and I want to thank everyone for
making it fun and memorable...and possible. I have been bedridden for
the better part of 14 months now and I'm having to face the fact that no
amount of medication or careful planning will allow me to continue to
feign the level of health & independence of movement that got me through
my first few years of playing in the SCA. To be seen in public this way
makes me feel vulnerable, awkward, useless, and unnervingly uncertain
of, not my welcome, but how much of a burden my presence places on those
around me. I am trying to unknot the thorny question of how much
assistance I can reasonably request, and how frequently I can request
it, before it begins to detract from other people's enjoyment of the
events.
These are things I have to work out for myself, I know, but in the
meantime I wish to thank you all for what you've been doing to make this
transition easier on me...
Thank you for getting me there and back again. Thank you for carrying me
*and* my wheelchair to and from the parking lot when the soft, bumpy
ground rendered the wheels inoperable. Thank you for braiding my hair to
keep it out of my face when my own hands refused to do the job. Thank
you for coming to talk with me under the baronial sunshade, knowing I
was immobile and couldn't seek any of you out on my own. Thank you for
fetching more and more water and picking up things I dropped but
couldn't bend down to pick them up myself. Thank you for bringing me
strawberry & chocolate treats and for waving as you passed by, even when
you couldn't stop to talk. Thank you for struggling to get me and my
wheelchair over the stairs and bumps, and for hauling me up and down
those long, steep ramps every time I needed air or a privy break. Thank
you for not making a fuss when my medication proved inadequate and I had
to do a glaringly anachronistic breathing treatment right in the middle
of the feast.
Thank you for your smiles, your careful hugs, your stories and
laughter...and your warm welcome home. It means more to me than I can
express.
- Cassandra
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