This is page one of the tributes to Sara...
read more tributes on page two and three.
I want to give a big cyber hug and special thanks to Linda Moore, who
has done so much for Sara over the last year or so. We love you Linda.
From Linda:
From Philippians 3:8 "And now, my friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and attractive, whatever is excellent and admirable--fill your thoughts with these things." It sounds like Paul was talking about Sara!
Go to page [two / three] of Tributes to Sara Tribute for Sara by Sally Stanton (myhrmaid from Wisconsin) Dear Friends, It has been great listening/reading all the things out here on the Net by people who care about Sara. I am one of the Myhr-Maids and a friend of Sara's. If you don't mind, I want to tell you a little about how our lives connected for a while. I met Sara through Laura Beth Cook (she's the wonderful vocalist who has entertained us at the last several banquets) who met her on the Convention Cruise in 1991. (It was called, poignantly, "A Celebration of Life.") Laura Beth read me her hilarious letters over the phone. We finally met at TunnelCon II; she Sara, had begun her Rat Lady costume and I was doing my Jamie costume at the time, Laura Beth was doing Brigit O'Donnell. Our interest in costuming sort of bonded us. Sara had someone take a photo of the three of us in costume, and later that fall it was published in the paper Sara worked for! It was at Great Expectations that we formed the Mhyr-Maids and we all became a tight group. That summer I had divorced and moved and it was a bad year for me, so a group of friends was just what I needed. I enjoyed Sara's sense of humor so much that I started writing to her so I could get her wonderful letters back and laugh my way through whatever came my way. We corresponded nearly weekly that year and she sent me oranges and hot cocoa for Christmas (she was always teasing me about living in the Frigid North). When Sara heard I was taking my daughter to Disney World in the Spring of 1994, she immediately said, "I'll take off a couple days from work and meet ya there." And she did! We spent two days doing Disney, Epcot and MGM, even though she had her arm in a sling, she hauled around Katie's stuff and went on all the rides...we had a wonderful wonderful time. I think we really got to be friends on that trip. Sara never married or had children, but she adores kids and so all the while she was making much of Katie and talking nonstop about her "god-children", her friend Jackie's kids. She loves them as if they are her own. If some of you think of it, please send a card or note to Jackie and her family. This is worse for them than for any of us. Anyway, Sara always asked after Katie and sent her gifts...a photo of us at Disney in a neat frame, Christmas ornaments...we continued to write often and Sara always was very supportive of my efforts working on my Ph.D., and always thinking up creative ideas on her own. Once she didnt write to me for about a month and so I sent her a letter on some weird stationary with sheep on it, sheep jumping over fences, and wrote it as a formal request for a "missive", needling her that she hadn't written. So Sara took the whole thing and from it wrote a story, which eventually was published in the "A Distant Shore" Con Zine, and a sequel as well (If you look at the title page, its dedicated to S.S. and K.S., that's me and Katie)...where she pretended that the letter I sent her was actually a letter received in the Tunnels by Father (sheep and all)...it was hilarious. Very well written. Clever. I was quite honored to be the inspiration. And then of course that began a running joke -- Sara lives at the Restop at the End of the Universe, I live in the Chamber at the West End of the Lake (Lake Michigan), and I tried to find things with sheep on them to send her, in fact, for Christmas this year I sent her a little yarn sheep ornament I found at Colonial Wmsburg last summer, I sent her sheep cards, sheep photos, sheep drawings...we had a lot of fun with it. She made me two little lead-casted handpainted carousel horses...and a clown with a red nose and the note "Don't laugh." Then she came up with the radio play, that we did at ADS. She sent us all rough drafts in the mail, begged us for comments, got us together at the Con for rehearsals, and somehow I got roped into doing Catherine (talk about casting against type!). We had a blast, it was well-received, and Sara got to be A Director. I think she absolutely loved that. I'm SO glad we did it. That Con was the last time I saw Sara. A few weeks later was when she first found the cancer. Everything happened quickly after that. As soon as she told me, I called all the Myhr-Maids and told them, and we started sending flowers and cards, and calling. I talked to her at Christmas that year and we joked about her bringing her "falsies" to the Con and getting them autographed (she made her own prosthetic after her mastectomy, imagine that!). Two of our friends went to visit her before the 96 Con and brought back some video, they all went to the beach together, as she was allowed out of the hospital at that time (I believe it was right before the bone marrow transplant)...I wish now I had gone to see her then. But we got to see her on video at the Con, and it was hard to be there without her. Sara was always one of the creative sparks and troublemakers in the group, and it was kind of flat without her. The hurricane provided some distraction, but well, that says a lot, if it takes a hurricane to get your mind off someone! I moved right before that Convention, and had sent Sara a letter about my new place and what was happening. After she was released from the hospital after the transplant, I received a big box in the mail...with a housewarming gift! I couldn't believe it, it was a beautiful gold, blue and white dreamcatcher, which hangs in my dining room door way, and I love it. She couldnt have picked out anything better. I was amazed that even in the midst of her tragedy, she thought of doing something for ME. I can't even bear to throw the box out, cause she drew funny pictures and wrote little comments all over it. All fall I sent her postcards from the Mall of America, trying to send her Hope that we would see her there this summer. She wrote and asked how my studies were going. I called her but it was hard to talk to her, she was having a rough, rough time. Her Christmas card was hysterically funny (imagine Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus doing the Wave), and she sent another tree ornament, that she had made herself. That was the last I heard from her. I wrote to her...but nothing came back, and I began to think something was wrong. Then I saw the email form Linda Moore, and I'm still in shock. She's been through so much in these last 18 months, and in the end it seems we are to lose her. I am sad for my loss, yes, but the saddest thing is how much she means to so many people, what a vibrant, creative, intelligent, humorous, giving person Sara is and how the loss of the that sort of person in this world, well before she should have left, is truly a tragedy. Sara is a wonderful writer, a wit, an artist (we made our own Unofficial Conzines with many of her drawings in it), a musician, a gardener, she has a master's degree in medieval history...and she is a truly caring, giving friend. I will miss her more than I can say. I've missed her so much since she got sick. This Convention this summer will be very hard for all of us who knew Sara. Ironically, its title is "Reflections". I am hoping to organize some kind of "Celebration of Sara" get-together either before, at the con, or after it, to celebrate and reflect on friendship and life and Sara. And if we do that, in some small way, she'll be there with us. Thanks, everyone, for listening. It's hard to make people understand how you can care so much for someone you only knew for a couple years, who you only got together with four times, but that's the kind of person Sara is. She's good people. And so, largely, are the people in this fandom. Sara told me she never knew how many people cared about her or how much until this all happened. Thank you all for really being there for her. Be well. Your friend, Sally Stanton (if you can't place me, I have costumed up as Jamie, Lena, and Alexandra Bennett at various Cons, and was Catherine in the Radio Play at ADS) Go to: [Top of Page][Tribute Index] Tribute for Sara by
Tori Rudd (myhrmaid from New Zealand) Take Us Back To Those Tunnels Again 'Belfast Child'-Simple Minds Memories lead us by the hand Take us back to those tunnels again Back to a threshold below Like long lost friends coming home Into warmly lit chambers we'd roam Father would welcome us there Take us back to those tunnels again Back to a threshold below Vincent would draw us near With us his destiny he'd share His small son a soul so wise Sensing pain in his fathers eyes A child so rare healing the pain hidden there Take us back to those tunnels again Back to a threshold below Follow us back to the whispering gallery So come back people won't you come on home? Come back dreamers you've been away so long The pipes are tapping John Paters' gone The pipes are ringing with childrens song And the music's calling Come on home Won't you come on home? You're not alone Oh come back helpers you've been gone a while Let's find some peace now Walk that extra mile Let's gather round now Gather round Money and power may have their hold Friends live forever in stories told Won't you come on home? Come on home Our friends are waiting Life goes on Memories lead us by the hand Take us back to those tunnels again Back to those tunnels again End Dedicated with Love to Sara Conklin Tori Rudd 1997 Go to: [Top of Page][Tribute Index] Tribute for Sara by Barbara I am terribly sorry to hear that Sara has left us. I did not get a chance to meet her, but from the last couple of weeks, I know she was someone special. I have said a prayer for those she left behind, in hope that some peace is found in the emptiness everyone has inside their hearts. I have also written a small poem in the memory of Sara. Candle by Candle Candle by candle Flame to flame We lift our hands in darkness So light can be found We stand together, and although Some of us miles apart We stand together in spirit Underneath the one we lost She watches us from above now And although we wish to have her return We know she has found her peace at last So we must continue on with our lives Maybe not like before, for Nothing is ever the same When a dear person is taken from our lives But we will continue, and It may be hard at first, but soon We will feel an embrace of warmth And see a flame of encouragment Guiding to us love- Guiding us to her Candle by candle Flame to flame We lift our hands in darkness Peace To Everyone- Barbara Go to: [Top of Page][Tribute Index]
Tribute for Sara by Amber
James (England) I didn't know Sara well, we spent some time together at the 1993 con here in England. But, even though we met so briefly, the time I spent with her.... she made me feel 'special'. I will remember Sara's courage, her sense of humour but, most of all, I will remember how good she made me feel. As with all families, Sara's struggle brought us together, in love and support.... and now.... in grief. Her struggle is over and we have given her care and support into other hands, hands more capable than ours. Now we must pour that same love and support in the direction of those who have been with her on a daily basis throughout her illness, it's what Sara would have done, it's what she would have expected of us. I want to pass on two verses from a poem which is very dear to me, Humbert Wolfe wrote it in 1920. It captures my thoughts on Sara's passing very well: "I will not write a poem for you, because a poem, even the loveliest, can only do what words can do- stir the air, and dwindle, and be at rest. But I will hold you in a thought without moving spirit or desire or will - for I know no other way of loving, that endures when the heart is still." Goodnight Sara Amber James Go to: [Top of Page][Tribute Index] Tribute for Sara by Jackie
(Maryland?) Thank you for the news re: Sara's memorials and wishes. I will bring her wishes to our Treasurer (Chesapeake Helpers') and arrange for a donation in her name. The first time I met Sara was at South of Oz and she and a friend stopped at the B&B Quilt table to visit with Sally. Not long after that, we were told that we had to move the Quilt into the Banquet Room, no simple feat. Not only is it 9 1/2 feet square, add 2 ten foot poles, a cross bar and 2 huge buckets of sand - not a job for the meek. Sara and a friend just happened by at that very moment. "Yo, Sara, can you give us a hand. We need to move this thing." What a parade we made, Sara carrying one pole, her friend - the other, Sally & myself with the buckets. Sara calling out, "Make way for the Quilt. Make way for the Quilt." -- a helper in the truest sense of the word. I had a thought. At every con's Banquet, we have a candle lighting ceremony. Why not have a candle dedicated to Sara on the dais, and start the ceremony with the flame from that candle. This way Sara will be with us, helping to light our way. Just an idea, if acceptable, it would have to be cleared with the Reflections con committee. Peace, Jackie Go to: [Top of Page][Tribute Index] Tribute for Sara by Sylvia
Mohr Note from Linda about the following message: Sylvia refers to the "Band of Angels" (BOA) but y'all may not know that it is "officially" a subgroup of the "Edward Albert Fan Club" of which Sara was a member. As coordinator of BOA, I can tell you that this support, vigil and memorial for Sara goes =way= beyond our small group (but I certainly am proud of our angels). It has demonstrated that truly: "We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other." - Luciano de Crescenzo ---------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 21:00:12 -0800 From: Sylvia Mohr Go to: [Top of Page][Tribute Index] Go to page [two / three]
of Tributes to Sara
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