A Wonderful Video of Ashley's Life, and a Final Message From Her

Hi... to no readers!

I've had to turn off access to the blog due to spamming.  While I get that pornographic irritation taken care of (hmm, there has GOT to be a better way to say that!), I get to write midst the sense of being in a silent Marlinspike Hall, where every footstep begins the ring of a circling echo.  It's empty here...

Ashley Riemer was such a vibrant person, so on the cusp of her transition to independent adulthood... remember how hard and how wonderful that time was in our lives?  She deserves so much credit for -- how to say this?  For becoming a beautiful adult all while being exactly where and what she is, damn, where and what she *was*.

My temporal confusion, at least in this matter, comes from this video (and another series of her memorial service -- she donated her body to the Georgetown Med School for research, bless her!).

The videographers  added a short recordingAshley made to be her "final words," and they are moving words that left me feeling Ashley as very much "here and now."

[Points to anyone who knows what song is playing in my head!  Something about a breeze... a donegal breeze.  (Teachers always give big ass hints.)  Of course, these lyrics are the ones that come to my mind, a mind very different from Ashley's, from her parents.  Always, always being and feeling à rebours, I am.]




Ashley Riemer's Video of her life uploaded to YouTube by Tammy Dennison (at whose channel you can also see the three videos of Ashley's Memorial Service)

With your dark hair in the donegal breeze,

Bringing me softly and sweetly to the ground,

But, there's madness in the sycamore trees,

And there's no salvation to be found.

Right now the only thing that my mind ever holds,

Are long dark silences or screaming that explodes,

Burning rocking beds with visions of a land,

Long dark tunnels, questions and calm,

But, with you, you know I have no doubts,

And fear will have no sting,

With your brilliant eyes and your lost and broken wing,

My head upon your shoulder as you take me in your arms,

Continents will crumble, we will find no harm.

With your dark hair in the donegal breeze,

Bringing me softly and sweetly to the ground,

But, there's madness in the sycamore trees,

And there's no salvation to be found.

Well I'll brace myself against the dark, endeavour to go on,

No matter how long it takes, and even though I might be wrong,

And I will ask a little favour of whatever God I find,

And I will come back for you darling, when I find some peace of mind.

Well I don't know about tomorrow, it will be here and gone,

I don't know about tonight, it'll be too long,

Sometimes I think I'm dying, and I don't care how,

All I know is that I want you, and I want you here and now.

With your dark hair in the donegal breeze,

Bringing me softly and sweetly to the ground,

But, there's madness in the sycamore trees,

And there's no salvation to be found.

Farewell, Farewell -- Mary Black

Farewell, farewell to you who would hear

You lonely travellers all

The cold north wind will blow again

The winding road does call

And will you never return to see

Your bruised and beaten sons?

"Oh, I would, I would, if welcome I were

For they loathe me, every one"

And will you never cut the cloth

Or drink the light to be?

And can you never swear a year

To any one of we?

"No, I will never cut the cloth

Or drink the light to be

But I'll swear a year to one who lies

Asleep along side of me"

Farewell, farewell to you who would hear

You lonely travellers all

The cold north wind will blow again

The winding road does call

shrike556 flickr

The melody of "Farewell, Farewell" comes from the traditional folk song "Willie O'Winsbury". Richard Thompson wrote new words for it and recorded it as "Farewell, Farewell" on the Fairport Convention album "Liege and Lief" with vocals by Sandy Denny.