We come from the land of the ice and snow...

A year ago Saturday my Roomie passed away.

In college there were 3 of us that were deep into Arthurian legend and things most mystical. The Tiny Pagan Ladies.

When “the Other” and I first found out in August the Roomie was ill we thought. “naw, she’s being dramastical” because we refused to accept anything else.

When a mass was found we thought “screw you mass! We are the tiny ladies and your arse will be kicked. We will have none of you sir! GOOD DAY!”

Later when we were in the hospital room visiting and found out that we had a year we said “Fuck you year, we want more and we will fight with tooth and claw because we love you and don’t want you to go”. Roomie mentioned that she wanted a Viking funeral. She wanted the burning ship and the lamenting of the women. And we said “of course, if you ever die, which you won’t bitch cauz you are on THE LIST. People on THE LIST will die when we tell them they can die and not a moment sooner.“

When I was getting ready to bring the Roomie to her first chemo appointment in October. I got a call from the sister. We didn’t have a year. We didn’t have months. We would be lucky if we got weeks. The chemo might kill her sooner, so she was going home to die.

On Friday October 17th I went to the Roomies house. I had the day off and wanted to read to her. I used to read to her before we went to bed in college. She said she hated the crap I read, but loved to listen to it anyways. I brought Storm Front. The First Dresden book. I knew I had a captive audience. I knew I could make her laugh.

They were getting her ready to take a shower. I told her to hurry her ass up we had reading to do. She laughed. I sat down and played with her kids. A – 5 and F – 2. While we were playing I started to hear commotion. People were running, voices were raised. I kept playing with the kids. They wanted to run around the house, see their mommy and dad, their grand mom and dad, their aunts. F escaped and I ran to grab him. I think I shielded him from seeing anything. No one should see their mommy on the floor. I kept the kids occupied while she was slipping away. The hospice nurse came out after awhile so I could say good bye too.


There was a typical Catholic wake and funeral….Well…we did send her off the best way we knew how. The Roomie’s family told us to meet at the funeral home as the family was going to go to the church together and we WOULD be there. When we (the Other, Laser, Boy Toy and me) got there we were alone. We of course thought that we screwed up the time, but that was ok. The other and I told the Roomie off. “What the hell are you thinking leaving us bitch? Who the hell do you think you are?” and we sang our theme song.

Don’t all friends have a theme song?


As the last note died down. Everyone else showed up. God is good. The Other and I promised each other that whoever went next would get the same send off.

A year later, we drove down to CT to give the Roomie the funeral she always wanted. Laser was working late. Thank God Boy Toy was up for building a Viking ship. He spent hours on making this authentic, knowing all the while that we planned on burning it.


He did a great job. The Roomie I am sure was pleased.





We followed the ceremony as closely as we could. Which means of course that we needed to sacrifice a virgin.




Boy Toy kept watch (Laser was kind enough to watch the wee ones)


The ceremony begins...on a deserted beach, with hurricane winds, open containers of strong spirits and sharp pointy objects...because we love...we love









Naysayers may say "there was no wind, you got it to burn". The reason for this my friends is that not only is Boy Toy a ship builder. He has fire magic.














Our work here is done


Let the gods and goddesses tremble. Fling open the gates of Valhalla. A great warrior has come to reside with you. Tremble. And fear those yet to come.