[MR] Midwinter's Revel 2013

[Leslie Cardwell]

After a bit of recovering from a fun filled day, I
needed to take a moment to say Thank you. I'll speak my heart. A little over a
year ago, I went to the officers asking to plan the event. After sharing it,
they approved the event with much enthusiasm. It was four to five months later
that an overwhelming tragedy struck our family, the loss of our son,
David.  I had already reserved the church
on the 19th of January. I had no idea that yesterday would be to the date 8
months of our son leaving this world behind. Their Excellencies' respectfully
gave us an out, to step out of the responsibilities of the event. I
respectfully declined from stepping down. I needed the goal to look forward to,
to plan, to keep moving forward while grieving the loss of my oldest adult
child. During my grieving, the planning of the event and those around me walked
beside me and at many times even held my hand and just let me cry and listened
while I grieved.  Their Excellencies'
nodded their heads with approval and have been a great supportive force behind
this endeavor as well as the other officers. I owe a great debt of gratitude
for everyone that rallied around us, Geoffrey, Aurelia, PJ and me.  The event was a success. Feast sold out mid
week before the event took place. Please read to the end.
 
Geoffrey, thank you for seeing my vision, drawing and
building the amazing set. Thank you for carving and casting the site tokens,
and rehearsing 3 and half months of Sundays. Thank you for the hours and hours
you spent helping make my dream a reality.  You were a huge help in the success of this
event.
 
Aurelia, (Sarah) thank you for taking off from work and
losing time on your paycheck so that the troupe could rehearse without having a
very active toddler PJ to run and chase after. 
 
Gabrell Fairclaugh, Thank you for the hours of work on
the set, the liquor license, hours of Sundays for rehearsals and all the things
you jumped into at the event, serving lunch and being here and there and everywhere
at the event and the lost hours of sleep. I think I saw three of you running
around. You were a huge help.
 
Sigrid, I thank you for being so wonderfully you. You
were gentle and kind, a gentle touch of heart and hand, to keep me going in my
darkest moments. You urged me to keep making progress. You were the voice of
tenderness, kindness, and reminder.  The
phone calls, the time spent together going over check lists, time at the church
Friday and Saturday night. You were a great hall/feast steward and wrangler of
servers and your efforts made the event a success.
 
Lisette and Christian, thank you so much for the
planning, shopping, hours of preparations of the wonderful, scrumptious feast.  Lisette, I thank you for being so devoted
after knee surgery. I heard compliment after compliment of each delicious item
that was served to the audience. I did get some of the handmade ravioli. Feast
was nommyilicious goodness!!
 
Vlad and Medb, I thank you for all that you did;
kitchen, lunch, running here and there fetching and retrieving.  You are splendid people!
 
To the players of Gli Zelanti “The Zealous Ones”,  Geoffrey, Gabrell, Annalies, Dan, Genevieve, Conrad,
Torvald, Nyvein, Erennach , Segehart, Sagrario and the to the ruffians that
stepped in at the last moment.  Thank you
so much for all the hard work, being easy to work with and the amazing fun of
being together! Segehart, I thank you for stepping into a role and learning so quickly
in such a short time, you could not have done the role any better than you did.
Nyvien, I thank you for filling a role very quickly and doing such a wonderful
job of filling it. Torvald and Genevieve, I thank you for filling two roles
each. You made sure that your characters were different with quick changes and
voices. Fabulous! I thank each of you for giving your time and effort to this endeavor.  I can’t say enough about each of you. Each
and every one of you made the play and the event a success! I applaud you! I’d
really like to have a cast party with all of you and give you your “pay” for
being a part of such a huge hit. We received a lot of compliments at the event
and through emails. Each and every one of you is so talented and so pleasant.
 
Duchess Simone, I thank you for all that you did, the
book, providing and hosting our majestic Monarch. Thank you for support. 
 
Duchess Aryanna, I thank you for being in charge of the
vigil and doing all that needed to be done.
 
Christiana, I thank you for the classes, hosting Their
Majesties and everything you did. I know you did a lot from all the running
here and there. I’d see you in the class room, then in the kitchen, off to the
vigil, off to the privy chamber. You are fantasimic!
 
Aefred, I thank you for running gate and your
cheerfulness was so pleasant. LVMG, I thank you for the wonderful music that
filled the hall and celebrated the newest Pelican of Atlantia.
 
Arianna and Ernie, I thank you for the nummilicious
stew, soup, fruit, bread and cheese!
 
To all the performers! I thank you. To all the
teachers, I thank you.
 
Santiago! I thank you for stepping up to herald royal
Court and heralding throughout the day. Maire, I thank you for doing baronial
court and please tell the girls that they were wonderful!
 
Gwen, Thank you for taking care of A&S!

To Bright hills Extraordinaire! Thank you for all the
wonderful music throughout the day. Thank you Peter, Shawn and to those that I
do not know your names, I thank you so much! The first song that was played was
absolutely perfect to begin with for the day.
 
Margaret and Stephan, I thank you for leading the
dances and giving people the chance to celebrate in such a traditional way. 
 
I know I am missing many names here on this list,
please forgive me, but my heart is full of gratitude and joy how well the day
went. I thank everyone that stepped up and help clean after feast to make the
work light.   
Instead of this being a day of sadness in remembrance
for my family, it was a day of celebration of life. Exceptional people coming
together, to have fun and enjoy each other’s company.  And for this, I truly am grateful for such a
wonderful day!