Lady of Kilbride Abbey
Emerging for a moment from my online hiatus.
A silly story from Maryland Renaissance Faire this past season...
Thanks to the extraordinary kindness and generosity of acroyear70 and faireraven, I had the incredible privilege and joy of being able to be second fiddle for their act, across multiple weekends this past autumn ( A Magnificent Season). And it was right after completing the first performance of the morning, that I heard a hearty voice call out, the booming basso of my SCA friends Lord Seanne, arm and arm with the elegant Lady Nancy.
They strode over to the Info booth, and a quick whirlwind of hugs and smiles and salutations ensued, enthusiastically sweeping faireraven in to the general greetings and photo taking. It was only a moment, as we all had places to go and people to see, and with one more round of hugs my friends Lord Seanne and Lady Nancy swept off again, to meet the rest of their Shire at the White Hart tavern, and faireraven and I waved them off.
faireraven then turned to me and asked with bemused confusion: "Who were those folks?" ;-)
I was clueless during that brief exchange that faireraven had no idea who my friends Lady Nancy and Lord Seanne were -- faireraven, ever the graceful performing professional, had greeted complete strangers with warmth and enthusiasm, as if they had known each other for years. Which is precisely what I had mistakenly assumed. It wouldn't have surprised me at all that the legendary Cydony Bowman, stawart of Revel Grove, was yet another old friend of Lady Nancy, old friend of Master Chort and the musicians of Clam Chowder and so many other legends of Markland, the Maryland Renaissance Festival, and what would become the SCA Kingdom of Atlantia. One among the band of mischief makers who had helped *found* many of the happy the traditions silmaril first brought me into ten years ago, began writing those stories literally the year I was born.
In their own words, Lady Nancy and Lord Seanne were Lady Isabeau and Captain Etienne, Ladyhawke and her knight. Among the dozens of photographs framed on their walls are portraits from their storybook wedding twenty two years ago, with the Pyrates Royale as their choir. Through decades of adventures across the world, across the Knowne Worlde, they were constant companions in life and love and adventure through many SCAdian lands, until life returned them back home to Markland about a decade ago, to the home they called Kilbride Abbey. And it was here that I first met them, in my first SCA revels as an Atlantian native, just over a year ago.
I remember the first night I met them finally in person, Lord Seanne on the drum and Mistress Fevronia, OP, of Clam Chowder on the harp and myself on the fiddle, and the elegant Lady Nancy dancing as we played, and of making music over a long happy day at Performer's Revel a few weeks later. Music - the music of the middle ages - was one of the reasons we met. The other was because our mutual friends in musical Ren/SCA circles said, "turnberryknkn, you're a cancer doctor..."
Lady Nancy had been diagnosed with an extremely aggressive cancer a little before I moved to the area. Had fought it back and forth; but at the time I was introduced to them, she was beginning to lose ground again. Their wide circle of friends in Markland and the SCA was rallying to help them in every way they could, from home-cooked meals to a grand charity concert thrown by Clam Chowder in her honor. And that effort was in part how I was lucky enough to come to know them, friends connecting Lady Nancy and Lord Seanne with me. There was an evaluation at the NIH; there was a evaluation at Hopkins; between both places, most of the most advanced techniques and methods available on the planet. I have seen incredible things -- been a part of incredible cures, managing thorugh the state-of-the-art to beat back previously unbeatable odds. Unfortunately, Lady Nancy was not one of them, her recurrent cancer roared through everything Bethesda and Baltimore could offer.
As the dark began to close in, a steady stream of friends continued to fill Nancy's last weeks with visits, with games and movies, and nights of music. A magical evening jam session with Clam Chowder and friends at Nancy's bedside that I was deeply lucky to be a part of, is a memory I will cherish for as long as I live. Though my few short months with them paled before the years - decades - that their other friends had shared, I had the great honor of being welcomed too as a friend of Kibride Abbey. I had the chance to make a number of trips out west to Kibride Abbey, their home northwest of DC, on evenings after work, for help and company and music, spending time with them as a friend who played the fiddle; or spending time with them as a friend who could help them with questions about the end of the cancer journey.
The last time was two nights ago, when I spent overnight by her bedside, helping give Lord Seanne a evening's help in caring for Lady Nancy, as the cancer made it's final advance. Even through enormous amounts of pain medication and support medication, even with the cancer literally consuming most of her organs, Lady Nancy's indomintable spirit still pushed outwards in the briefer and briefer moments when she was still lucid; shone bright and clear in the last time we held hands and gently hugged when I left the next morning to return to Hopkins. That last gentle smile and hug, one last gift from a graceful and courageous lady, much loved by many, by her Knight most of all.
Lady Nancy O'Neal, Lady of Markland and Mistress of Kilbride Abbey, slipped from this world this morning, Valentine's Day, in Lord Seanne's company, in the sun room of the home and croft they shared together. She will be deeply, deeply missed.
goodnight, sweet princess
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest