[Steppes] Cancer walk

[Liz Wilson]

I would be happy to walk in the cancer walk in garb with our family.

One of my best friends from high school and college was Rise Sheridan
Peters, who was heavily involved in the SCA in Atlantia and was a Laurel
in lampwork (I believe her SCA name was Caitlyn and at one time she was
known as "lusty Cait" and I think the rest of her name was something like
Chanledier, but I am probably spelling it incorrectly).  Anyway, I'm sure she
was at Pennsic on a regular basis, so maybe some of you had met her.  I
would have to look it up but she may have been a Pelican too because I
know she did a lot of service-related things as she got older.  She first became
involved in the SCA about 1979 or so.

She was one of the smartest and bravest people
I ever knew, and she died of a rare form of breast cancer in May 2007.  She was
always an inspiration to me and I always wished I could be as smart and
talented as she was.  We both went to law school about the same time,
but she went to Harvard and I went to Virginia.  She was still practicing in the DC area
when she died and I had quit practicing to be a stay at home mom.  We were
still in touch occasionally but as you know, life gets pretty busy sometimes.

After she passed away, that was when I finally decided that life was too short
and we were going to go on and get involved with the SCA, even though we had 7 year old twins 
(and I was waiting for them to get a little older),   We had always been Scarborough
Ren Faire fans but had started with the clothing and accessories after our 3 year olds
in their little princess dresses asked us, why didn't WE play dress up too?  However,
although I enjoy Ren Faires I don't really want to just travel the country attending them and
it gets rather expensive too.

 We met some people at the Highland Games in June 2007.  My first events were Steppes
Artisan (which I attended in a wheelchair with my kids because I had broken my leg, and
my husband was on call and couldn't come) and the Lammas Day event that Elfsea held in August 2007,
which was my husband's first event.  We camped at Lammas Day but we
 decided that we needed to wait until my leg was better before we camped again.

We didn't really do a whole lot between then and Steppes 12th night in early 2008 because of
kids activities, but now it looks like we are here to stay.  And I owe it all to Lusty Cait in
particular, because she's the one who first got me started.  So I would love to walk in
her memory and the members of others that have been lost to cancer.

Christianna