The Woman who is Mumsy

I was Jeanne, for a very long time. I am Mumsy.


I was raised in a noisy, happy home, by a woman who was not happy in her life. My Mama married a man who loved his toys, and those toys were both animate and inanimate. There was never enough money because of the motorbikes, the sports cars, the airplanes, and the camping "gear," not to mention what he spent on his girlfriends. I love you Dad, but you were a rake and a cad and you treated my Mama like dirt.

We went to church, Dad's church, and it was all about God and money. I was "asked" to leave Sunday school at the age of ten or eleven because I asked questions the teachers could not or would not answer. Yes, I started questioning Christianity very early. When Mama stopped making us go, I stopped going. Too much did not make sense. How can one book be "the way, the truth, and the light" and not another? Why do we attribute this book as written by "God," when it was written by men?

As my own first marriage continued to deteriorate and become an unhappy place, I started looking for something to bring me peace and a bit of harmony. Happiness was more than I felt I could ask for. One morning, on my way to my park hideaway, I turned into the drive of the RLDS church. I didn't know why then, I do now. I did receive welcome, felt a harmony, and asked Mama to join me one morning. This was the church in which she had been raised and I was the instrument to bring her back. She found her forever home. Me? Not so much. Still too many misfit feelings. While I love the church for what they gave me and what they gave Mama, it was still too "wrong" for me.

The marriage withered, died, and I filed for divorce in 1994. I ran into an "old acquaintance" one night in a favorite pub. He invited me to a Renaissance recruiting party. I put on a "costume" and had a blast. A new friend helped me to put together a decent set of garb and Al and I went to The Des Moines Renaissance Festival. It became our hobby, our home away from home, and we were good at it. The friendship became a romance, and the romance became the love of my life. I was hooked on both the faires and the man, and on September 17, 1995, Alesandre pledged her love and her life to her Aelric as Queen and King of the Des Moines Renaissance Festival.

It was through my friends in the festival circuit that I finally found my true path while researching for a performance. I knew the festival circuit was filled with those following "alternate" paths and did not want to offend anyone with my portrayal of myth and magic. I found my true Home through that research. I was able to finally find my way to my true self. I am an ecclectic Pagan, a first degree Wiccan Priestess, and an ordained multi-faith minister.

Mumsy is the name I was given by one of my daughters in the festival circuit; my Paisley. And from whom Dadu also received his family nickname. Siobhan is still very much a part of our life, though far away now. I miss you, sweetin.

I am still reading, learning and, now, ready to teach what I have learned while still fully a student of the natural spiritual pathways I love so much. And that is where Ruadh Raven Rosmerta begins.