[Stargate] A beautiful butterfly has flown onward today

[Linda Bratina]

Today a shining soul has left us and fluttered on to her just reward.
 
One of our own has passed away this day and will be sorely missed.  
 
She was a very hard working, loyal and helpful person.  A giving and kind soul.  A loving, warm and caring individual.  She was fiercely competitive and yet truly concerned for others, be they two or four footed.  She was a noble friend and confidant.
 
She enjoyed the SCA as her outlet, a way to be more than modern day society lets us be.  She was a chirurgeon, an artist and an equestrian marshal.  She truly loved a challenge and this was born out by the many times that she won competitions as an Equestrian.  Yet nothing thrilled her more than to take someone new under her wing and help them to become all they could be.  She was a teacher at heart.  
 
She earned many awards, including, the AOA, Sable Thistle of Ansteorra, Sable Crane of Ansteorra, Sodality of the Sentinels of the Stargate.  She was also a Royal Lancer of Ansteorra, twice, and earned the Golden Bridle of Ansteorra and the Golden Lance of Ansteorra.  She was ever busy.
 
Many of you may not know what the above items are or what they meant to her or too many of us, but let it be known that it was important to her and we were all proud of her.
 
She was also and wonderful mother, devoted grandmother and loving wife.  She spent much of her last few weeks, making sure that there were recordings, pictures and drawings for her grandson, so he might remember her.  
 
She always wanted a farm and finally achieved that dream, about the same time that the nightmare began, when she found that she had cancer.  She fought the battle against this internal foe, every bit as hard as she entered into every other competition or battle that she ever began.  She was determined that she was going to be there for all and she wasn’t about to give up.  Unfortunately, the foe she battled was too fierce and too mighty, and in the end she succumbed.  Her husband Charles Michael and her daughter Laura Michelle were with her when she passed on.  She was not alone.
 
She was my best friend, my sister in everything but blood and I am not sure what I will do without her.
 
Lady Lorraine Fraser, Laura Jean Betenbaugh, we will miss you.  Go in peace and may the good Lord receive your soul.  
 
03/15/2010
Annalies Pferdehirt