Dear Friends, It has come to my attention that someone in Ansteorra (who shall remain nameless) is spreading a rumor about my lord husband and I. Though I know many people say not to pay attention to rumors, lest you give credence to them, I felt that this particular one requires debunking. Otherwise, I'm afraid that I might one day soon find a crowd of fighters and Ansteorran ladies on my doorstep, waiting to teach my husband a lesson. (Just kidding) The rumor is such: My husband has forced me to quit the SCA and cut off all contact with all of my friends and family, and it is likely that he is abusing me in some form or fashion. This rumor is completely and utterly untrue, as those who know me should know. The idea of anyone forcing me to do something against my stubborn will is absolutely ludicrous. However, the rumor does have some founding in truth. Therefore, I will explain the situation so that there are no further questions. In May, I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus, which is an auto-immunity disease highly related to stress. When I am under a lot of stress, I tend to get quite sick, which is referred to as a "flare". I have discovered over time that I just cannot seem to travel to and attend a weekend event without making myself sick from exhaustion and the stress of camping and travel. This gets worse when I am working long hours at work due to holiday seasons. In October, I got married. My husband became very concerned for my health, as I was having flares either before, during, or after every event we attended or planned on attending. He repeatedly asked me to cut back on my events, or even quit all together, as he was afraid I would literally play/work myself to death. In early January, I suffered an early miscarriage, which my doctor partially attributed to exhaustion and stress. At that time, Steven finally put his foot down and said something had to go. He would not watch me make myself sick all the time anymore. Because the SCA had taken up a large majority of my free time over the last year and a half, he asked that I give it up. I agreed to an indefinite "retirement" from the SCA until my health could become stable again. In addition, my husband and I are typical newlyweds. We are very wrapped up in each other, and we both often forget that a whole world exists outside of ourselves. We both unintentionally neglect to call or email our friends for days at a time. I many times do not even check my email for weeks on end. While I apologize for this, I don't anticipate this to change anytime soon, because I'm just distracted by my husband, who is also my best friend. Thus the truth behind the rumor: I have not been forced to quit the SCA, but I have withdrawn from active participation until my health is more stable, however long that may take. For those of you who wish to contact me, emailing this address is the second best way (I'm sharing my work email box with someone at the time and they don't always tell me I have current email). Calling me at work is an almost sure bet for getting in touch with me. I apologize for the mistakes the misguided person spreading this rumor has made and the concern it may have caused. I also apologize for the large amount of bandwidth used to clear up the errors. I am still alive, and I'm not being held captive. :P Living the Dream in Service to the Queen, Aelizia Hawkins MKA Shelly Kraal (formerly Martin) ! ============================================================================ Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.