Hi, Vannessa. I was just hoping to clarify something. As I recall, you ended up giving Melissa a crown at SDCC this year, and you (or someone else?) capture the picture of her wearing it. But, I think you said that wasn't the CfMMB one. So you did give the CfMMB one to her as WSC. So...did you get the first one back? Or did you end up giving her 2 crowns? Did she say anything about it?
Of course @imorca ! Sorry if this ends up being super long cause I apparently have no filter lol.
Yes, at SDCC I gave her a tiara made out of fake quartz (at least I think they were fake). It’s a tiara I fashioned out of two tiaras from Claire’s. It was a spur of the moment thought as I hadn’t been lucky enough to actually win an autograph ticket. After having a small panic attack of the throne of people I decided to get out of the crowd and happened to start destressing right where they were taken out of. So I wanted to give her something as it was probably the only time I’d see her. I took my tiara and handed it to her as she passed. It was a quick interchange since she was walking and couldn’t stop and I couldn’t move as more people gathered around me.
She knew about the crown. And then everyone thought that it was the crown I had crowd gathered money for (which I totally get cause that was not worth the money we gathered).
The small interaction we had apparently had a change in me so profound that my mom decided to do everything possible for me to meet her again and have an actual conversation. By then we thought I’d just send the crown to her and hope it wasn’t lost again (the original crown we never heard of again. The last we were able to trace it was to the LA USPS distribution center and then it was never heard of or seen again. USPS hadn’t offered additional insurance so they only covered 50 dollars and the initial shipping cost. Thankfully when I contacted Elemental Child asking if she had anything around that price she asked me what had happened then surprised me by telling me she would waive the $ of her work and I could simply pay for the material so I could get Melissa the same crown. I honestly know she lost money with that but without her support I wouldn’t have been able to get her a crown, any crown.).
Anyhow, went off topic. Because of mom’s decision to take me to meet Melissa we ended up planning a trip we couldn’t truly afford so that I could personally give her the crown and it wouldn’t be lost again.
We got the essentials for the trip, nothing more, and off we went to Atlanta. After some panic over possibly not meeting her once I was in Atlanta (for they were backed up and had to do presales, vip, golds and a dozen other colors before general admission could even get a chance) and being told numerous times I wouldn’t get to meet her, I stood in line for two hours and finally got to give it to her.
She was amazed! We gave her a couple of other things but she actually took out the crown very gently, showed it to her handlers, then put it on. No pictures are allowed, and I wasn’t gonna ask more than once if she said no, but before I could ask she allowed me to take a picture of her with the crown. She joked that she was feeling it (“The queenliness”) and that she could see it happening. The people in the crowd waiting cheered at her playfulness and her helper asked if she wanted to keep wearing it, she said no but she’d definitively wear it at home. She then took it off and just stared at it for a while, remarking that the quartz were real and that it was gorgeous. She told me it was too much and she was grateful and that she was very proud of me and that I was doing great (she knew about my anxiety issues and was very supportive). I wanted to make her feel special and she ended up making mom and I feel special instead!
Tears were shed on both parts.
This is not letting me add pictures but I did post a pic of the crown that was delivered, of the work I did on its enclosure and of Melissa wearing it at Walker Stalker.
