I’ve put up two new galleries for those who enjoy photographs. The first is personal and will appeal only to those who have a keen interest in Nick and my personal life, and a love for all things bridal. It’s a gallery of our wedding plans…

If so inclined, you can view Our Wedding Gallery here.

The second gallery is of greater interest, and I think you’ll find something to like therein. It’s a gallery of items from The Ellen Rimbauer Museum, which closed its doors in 2007. But its owners kindly sent me catalog photos of their inventory, so I’m able to show you lots of Ellen’s personal items purchased from the estate auction or donated by the Gilchrist family.

Check out The Ellen Rimbauer Museum gallery here.

A reader named Megan kindly commented last week asking if Nick and I have, as many other couples have, a particular song we call our own. Since I do love any excuse to talk about him, I thought I’d answer the question more formally – particularly since there are some eerie coincidences in the way our musical tastes have played out, with the turn our tale took 8 years ago.

As the “Ever Wedding” piece revealed, Nick and I do have a lot of coupledom quirks. And yes, we have a song. Two, actually. But one we’re set to dance to at our wedding.

(I must take a moment to explain why I still refer to Nick as if he’s alive, all these years after his disappearance, with no sign of him here on the property…yet. It’s because I still have hope. I still believe he’s alive somewhere here, just beyond reach. Perhaps a parallel existence. It’s tempting to talk about him as if he’s gone, because that’s easy. It’s harder to keep reminding myself there’s no proof he’s gone, because there ultimately isn’t. So please excuse the idiosyncrasy.)

Back on track. Our song is strange and untraditional – so in other words, it fits us perfectly.

(Continue reading…)

A local bridal magazine, Seattle Bride, did an interview with me in October of 2004. It’s all about Nick and my wedding (which is still hanging in the balance!) and quite a bit about Nick as well. I thought that you might find it interesting to get a better idea of our life together and our plans for the future.

The Ever Wedding
by Priscilla Baines for Seattle Bride, October 2004

Editor’s Note: It’s not often we profile a wedding steeped in tragedy. But when noted author Allison O’Sullivan agreed to talk to us about her on-hold nuptials with fiancé Nick Hardaway, who went missing in Rose Red in 2001, we simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We hope that you take away from this interview not a sense of sadness or wistfulness, but the infectious hope and optimism with which Allison still approaches her wedding.

October of 2001 was the month Ally O’Sullivan was to become Ally Hardaway, or for those who prefer formality, Mrs. Nicolas Hardaway. But in May of 2001 her husband-to-be vanished into thin air in famed haunted house Rose Red, which used to reside in the heart of downtown Seattle.

The house itself was a wedding present from John Rimbauer to his young wife Ellen Rimbauer, and one would think the romantic gesture would fill the place with love. But instead, unknown forces Ally continues to relentlessly study twisted it into a psychic black hole, devouring any who crossed its path. And on that now infamous Memorial Day weekend, 4 of the party of 9 who set out to explore the mansion met an unpleasant, if rather unresolved fate.

Ally now lives in a condo on the site of what once was the Rimbauer estate. Determined to somehow solve the mystery of her fiancé’s disappearance, she prefers to think of her wedding as pending, rather than called off. Specially for our October issue, she spoke to us about her life, her love, and her “ever” wedding. (Continue reading…)