Member Spotlight: Katarianna al'Leya

Author: Leese Sulan, February 2013

Katarianna al'Leya has been a member of the TarValon.Net community for eleven years. This Green—"always and forever”—Sedai is bonded to Jalen te'Kreg and Odin Varna. She was the Mistress of Revels for several years, and served a term as Head of the Greens.

However, what has always stood out about Katarianna for me, has been how she is an excellent example of an individual whose life has been affected and changed by this community and the Wheel of Time series, in numerous ways.

Katarianna joined the TarValon.net community in January of 2002. She says that her brother (Jarin Gaidin) unsuccessfully tried to get her into the series when she was in high school. However, while attending college, she gave them another try and became enraptured by the series. A quick Google search sent her to Stone Dogs and Katarianna calls that the highway to her finding the Tower. The Tower became important because it allowed her to discover herself and who she was, in a safe place.

Being the Mistress of Revels in those early years of the community and attending the official parties, she met and became friends with Ryan, or as most of us know him in the community, Cathel Dreng. The two were married in 2005 and now have a beautiful daughter they named Aviendha, inspired by the series.

I asked her to briefly talk about how the site has directly changed her life.

"Where do I begin? Ryan firstly. We never would have met. My daughter would not be around and we wouldn't have the amazing live in nanny that allows me to do what I need to. Also, I wouldn't have my amazing First Sister Missy, half of my wedding party was Tower people and I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today."

I’ve watched you shift careers over the years and follow your passions. Can you share what are you up to now in your personal and work life?:

Kathy"I am a full time photographer and photography business helper and absolutely love it. I am the rare person who is lucky and blessed enough to be able to do what I love for a living."

Your current household consists of you, Ryan, Avi and Suze (Sela Narian). Are you willing to take a moment to talk about what happened to Ryan, and how you guys came to the idea of moving in Suze to help out? And how does she help?

"In Nov 2010, Ryan had a massive stroke. Even now, his right side doesn't work and he has trouble communicating what's in his head through the mouth. He can walk with a brace on his foot, but the arm does nothing but annoy him. We've had several emergency visits since then but hope to never need to again. One other thing to know, he was the cook in the house. I can fail at boiling water and so with him out of commission, we had a variety of interesting meals. I've been friends with Suze for years and knew she had been a nanny for a while, but it wasn't until we were going to be moving into a house that had an extra bedroom that we began to think that this could be a possibility. She now lives with us, takes care of Avi during the day while I work, provides meals of amazing caliber and is available to help Ryan if I'm not home, and stay with Avi if we have an emergency (which was proved in the first month or so of her being here). It's not perfect, but it's life changing and I could not do what I do with as much peace of mind without her!"

To conclude this member spotlight, I’d just like to reference something I found in the Library while researching Katarianna’s community history. Back in 2008 when she responded to the Senior Member Interview questions, she had this to say about herself:

"I am married to the amazing Cathel Gaidin and am lucky enough to be fairly happy in my life. I am surrounded by people I love and who love me and wouldn't want to change much. I hate doing these type of bio things, because I am a terrible writer, so I'll say: if you want to know more about me, PM me. "

She obviously still feels the same way about this community that she did five years ago, and is just as outgoing and as caring of a person. It also gives me great joy to observe and watch how positively this community has impacted one person’s life over the years, and brought her together with many others whom she now loves and who make her world. Keep being awesome, TarValon.net.