Mindy Leary, Ward. It was Valentine’s Day weekend, 1992.

 From Kathy:

“During a near death experience, I was told by an Angel I had to return to my body, for my children and to fulfill my life’s mission. I slowly recovered and began searching for another path for myself. I wasted no time sending out feelers in many unusual directions in search of my life’s mission. I found an unusual way to market medicine tools, jewelry and collectibles I was selling. I searched for something new and my life’s work took me to an unlikely place… a costume convention in Pittsburgh, PA.

Now, it was Valentine’s Day in Pittsburg. I was tending my booth in the dealer’s room when in walked a handsome long-haired man… Our eyes locked. The room fell hushed as we approached each other. Electricity sparked through the air and all the other sales clerks and customers who witnessed the event knew they were witness to some great moment. And great it was for us.

We were strangers yet awed in each other’s presence. The handsome man made a large purchase of Native American medicine tools. I knew I could not let this man go, so as I took his driver’s license number for his charge slip, I secretly wrote his name, Breighton Dawe, his address and phone number down and stuffed it into my purse.  I knew I would sin with this man…he was my destiny.

Once during the show, I saw Breighton from across the room make as if to go to the elevator. I left the booth unattended, ran across the lobby, ran through the hotel kitchen, where busy chefs and waiters were concentrating on their food presentation, only to slip out the door and magically appear at the elevator Breighton was about to get on. He was to travel only one floor that trip. Willing myself not to perspire, I touched his arm and said, “I will be leaving later today… please let me talk to you one more time before my departure.”

It was an unlikely romance. I lived across the country.  I had children.  I broke every rule Breighton had set for himself.  Surely he would forget about me soon… but he did not. In fact, the thoughts grew stronger day by day… how in the world would he find me and make something work from it???

He lived across the country.  I had a life, a house, and a good job in Ohio… He was from California. He was too handsome, too young for me etc. I needed to write, so I did, just as he was agonizing what to do next and how to reconnect with the girl he could not get out of his head.

We talked on the telephone for hours. We wrote long, lovely, delicious letters to one another. We did planned meditations together and met on the astral plane and made love to one another in a place where all things are possible. Our letters would cross in the mail and both would contain hair or some medicine gift or some other little way to touch one another from afar.

The romance built for two years little by little. The second year we did not see each other even once, while both of us ended previous old relationships. This was before the days where cell phones and the internet connected people. Finally I could not resist the pull of my heart and I flew to California to see this man I desperately loved for the first time. I left my whole world behind, packed up everything and moved in with my lover. A year later we were married. And a year after that we had a baby of our own. We love as neither ever hoped to love or be loved… happily ever after 28 years later.”

Kathleen and Breighton moved to Nederland in August of 2017 and instantly loved the community. They bought a house in Ward. Kathleen volunteers at the Nederland Library on Wednesdays during story hour. As part of a new Library outreach program, she takes her storytelling to both Nederland area preschools, inspiring children with her animated storytelling and singing every other week. Breighton works for Gaia in Louisville as a senior software engineer and architect. Together they teach metaphysics classes.  

Every Valentine’s Day they tell each other the story, just to reminisce.

Kathleen Dawe is an author, teacher, counselor, certified hypnotherapist, and alternative health practitioner for Stone Circle Alternatives. An experienced workshop presenter, her gifts include being a Reiki Master, psychic, and medical intuitive. She has walked a spiritual path for more than 35 years sharing her unique perspective that blends both ancient and modern healing techniques, wisdom, and concepts. A librarian and superb storyteller, her bardic presentations, including story and song, are the delight of many children each week. 

Breighton Dawe is a Reiki master, energy worker, tarot reader, writer, teacher, and alternative health practitioner for Stone Circle Alternatives. He is an experienced workshop presenter in both the professional engineering and spiritual/shamanic venues. He uses his engineering and computer background integrated with his spiritual understanding as a foundation to bring the metaphysical into the “real” world. Personal energy management, vibrational medicine, alternative energy, and weatherwork are a part of his repertoire. Breighton is a sensitive and conscientious healer and energy worker.

Together, Kathleen and Breighton wrote their first novel Crystal Traveler: Book 1 of the Crystal Message Chronicles and are nearing completion of the second book in the series. They founded Stone Circle Alternatives, a school for alternative health and metaphysical arts. They bring their special kind of magic to audiences when they jointly present their workshops. Their love of each other, their family, and their teaching shines forth in the presentations they give together. That passion also expresses itself clearly in their writing. The vibration they carry generates inspiration and hope and is a gentle catalyst for positive change in those they touch with their teaching and writing.

(Originally published in the February 13, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)