Duchess Melisande wrote on September 8, 2015:

I woke this morning to the sad news that my dear friend Helen, also known as Countess Aidan ni Leir, OR, OL, OPel, passed from this world sometime over the weekend. She was a woman of many talents -- music, calligraphy & illumination, bookbinding, jewelry making, administration, and more. I was in awe of her ability to sit on the floor of her Queens apartment with a pair of shears and a pile of *very* pricy fabric, without a pattern, and cut pieces that would ultimately be a gorgeous garment. She was maid of honor at my wedding, and she made the dresses for both my medieval and my modern weddings.

Helen was one of *those* friends, the kind where I could go for weeks or months or even years without seeing her, but when we did meet again, we picked up where we'd left off, as if no time at all had passed. I haven't seen or spoken with her nearly as often in these last years as I used to, but I will miss her dearly. May her memory be for a blessing.