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Holy Cross Abbey

901 Cool Spring Lane Berryville, Virginia 22611

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Maddie MacNeil 1940 – 2020

April 4, 2020 by Fr Joseph 8 Comments

     Last Monday, 30 March, before the Governor’s order to stay home, a very small party gathered in Cool Spring natural Cemetery. The air was warm, the sky was cloudless, wild mint, violets and daffodils blossomed in the dappled sunlight under the trees. The birds were singing and butterflies fluttered. I think it was the ideal setting to celebrate Maddie MacNeil’s burial and, to me, at least, it seemed as if she had planned every detail.

     Had she not died—of a fall at home, not the Corona Virus–during a pandemic, the burial would have been mobbed by friends and fans. But Maddie did like things on the small scale and, perhaps, not only had her way, but knew best.

     Visitors to the Abbey will remember Maddie’s Christmas recital of traditional Carols a half hour before the Christmas Night Mass on 24 December. She’d been offering this performance to the Abbey and our visitors from 1978 until this past Christmas, 2020, without a break. Christmas was her bright spot in the winter—never her favorite season. Had you ever noted that Maddie never sang or recorded I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas? That would not have been a dream come true but a nightmare! Born in January, she celebrated her birthday in May when the days are longer, the sun stronger, and her garden abloom with azalea, daffodils, magnolia. That’s why the day of her burial seemed tailor-made to her preferences.

     Maddie entered the Catholic Church in the 1990’s but never lost her affection for her Methodist upbringing. She told me that after a piano teacher gave up on her, as a child, she taught herself to play from the Methodist hymnal. To the end, she had a real affection for the tiny Methodist church, Marvin Chapel, just down the road from her home.

    When she studied Music Education at Longwood College, one of her teachers told her she’d never be a singer; but she continued to believe in her gift and trust her instincts. She indeed became a singer—she just never became a diva.

   She told me that it was attending a Peter, Paul and Mary concert that motivated her to risk abandoning teaching to strike out as a folk singer. She began accompanying herself on the guitar at the Wayside Inn—and also worked at the Wayside Theater—and performed for many years at Sky Meadows in Shenandoah National Park. Discovering the mountain dulcimer and the hammered dulcimer completed her profile as a musician. Conveying the words, the mini-drama of each song, its particular emotional “tint,” is what she aimed at—and achieved.

    Maddie also aimed to connect with her audience, to bring them into the music, to sing with her; it wasn’t about her, but about sharing the music. In that aspect of her performing, she never ceased being an educator, a real educator. She reveled in other people’s gifts.

    Another aspect of her music making was a direct communion through music with the people and land she loved and the Creator who blessed her with them. Where someone else might say, “I’ll pray for you”, Maddie would tell me, “I’ll sing for you.” It was the way she delightedly gave her gift back to God.

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Comments

  1. Franny Crawford says

    April 4, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    Very beautiful tribute – one very special person

    Reply
  2. Lindsay Hope says

    April 4, 2020 at 8:30 pm

    We loved her Christmas concerts in the area for years. She had such an angelic happy face and heart that not shown like a bright star when she sang her songs. We will miss Maddie! Our own local angel on earth. I’m sure she’s singing to the heavens now with great gusto! RIP Madeline

    Reply
  3. Dennis DiVito says

    April 4, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    I remember her from the days when I was interested in storytelling as a performance art. I got to see her at the conferences in Jonesboro, TN.
    I’m sorry I never got to see her at the monastery for her Christmas recitals.
    RIP Maddie

    Reply
  4. Susan Burke says

    April 6, 2020 at 12:07 am

    Oh, no! I remember when the Holy Cross monks dedicated the natural cemetery (I think it was then), and she sang “Shenandoah “ for the occasion. I asked her if she would sing it at my funeral, and she said she would. I hope she still will.

    Reply
  5. Vicky Lee says

    April 6, 2020 at 6:26 am

    Thank you for this tribute to Maddie’s spirit. I wish I’d known her better here, but perhaps we will go on to join our instruments,as planned, in the heavenly place.

    Reply
  6. Charles Francis Shenk says

    April 6, 2020 at 7:34 am

    Thank you for your reflection about Maddie. I wish I could have heard her sing especially on Christmas Eve.

    Reply
    • Sam Herrmann says

      April 7, 2020 at 10:14 am

      With the music community being so connected to y life I was shocked and saddened to have just heard about our loss. She was always a brilliant light in my life. A very special person that over-came and ignored the negative a plowed forward positively.

      Reply
  7. Danna Doyle says

    April 19, 2020 at 1:21 am

    Maddie – A gifted musician and singer, an encouraging mentor, a gentle and wonderful friend. Thank you for inspiring me to learn the Mt. Dulcimer. It has brought joy and many special friends to my life. The dulcimer groups you started will continue your legacy. We’ll “play a tune” for you each day.

    Reply

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