By Molly Lovell
Staff Writer


Standish resident Patti Libby is inviting the community to hear the voices of those living with multiple sclerosis during a special concert at her home May 25.
Libby participates in an online MS support group “chat room” where she met the members of Broken Feather, a duo who have been producing music online for three years, yet have never met one another. Boston resident Debbie Kelson and Utah native Rick Bone will meet and perform together for the first time during a concert at Libby’s home.
“How they’ve made this music together over the miles, I have no idea, but it’s gorgeous,” Libby said.
Bone plays guitar, bass and keyboard and Kelson is a singer and songwriter. Bone said their songs relate to having MS.  Libby, Kelson and Bone all have MS.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (www.nationalmssociety.org), MS is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision.
Kelson said they have produced 20 songs together. She said Bone records the music and gives her a vocal backtrack of how he wants the lyrics arranged. She then sends it back to him and he puts it together.
Kelson called Bone her best friend and said she’s very excited to meet in person.
“We keep each other company and keep each other’s spirits up,” she said.
For Bone, the feeling is mutual. He said meeting Kelson will be like meeting his best friend for the first time.
“It seems that we’ve always known each other,” he said.
Bone said they first met on a MS support group on Myspace.com.
“I was looking through Myspace and saw that someone [Kelson] was having a bad day. I just emailed her and said, ‘Hey, smile,’” he said.
Their creative relationship began when Bone noticed Kelson’s artwork and asked her to create an album cover for him. It wasn’t until later he knew she could sing.
“She actually auditioned over the phone. She started singing and I said, ‘Wow, that girl can sing,’” Bone said, adding that it was the “bluesy style” in her voice that impressed him.
Bone said the chat room where he met Libby, “MS and Friends,” generally has about 20 people chatting every night.
“We talk about MS when people have a question, but for the most part we talk about our every day lives. It’s a way to escape how we’re feeling,” he said.
Libby has been chatting on the site for 12 years. She has often hosted get togethers for members at her home and has traveled throughout the country and to Canada to meet fellow members.
“We all know each other well – we know house routines, we know what time they take the dog out. We talk about everything,” Libby said.
She said participants don’t have to have MS to be welcomed into the group, but said most do have the disease.
Libby was diagnosed in the 1970s at a time she said little was known about the disease.
“It was a disease that nobody saw,” she said, adding that as a young woman, people would notice her gait was off and assume she was intoxicated.
“There are a lot of things that are worse. I’ve seen people who have had it [MS] for a week and can’t even get out of bed. I count my blessings,” she said.
Libby said it’s easy for some people with the disease to feel bad for themselves, but said she “never has and never will.”
She spoke of others in the chat room and what a “strange disease” it is that affects them.
She said one woman lost her vision for six months and got it back only to lose it again. One man got up and walked for the first time in five years, Libby said.
“It hits everyone different,” she said.
Kelson was diagnosed with MS in 2004 and said she had a difficult time handling it. She said it was challenging because she had to wait a year before she had health insurance.
When she was diagnosed, she was told over the phone, which she said was inappropriate.
Kelson has primary progressive MS, which doesn’t “turn on and off,” like other types.
She is Native American and while living in Arizona friends gave her the name, “Dancing Feather.” When she was diagnosed with MS she became “Broken Feather.”
Bone, now retired, was diagnosed in 1999 and said he too had a difficult time handling the diagnosis.
“I was devastated. I didn’t understand what MS was at all. I thought I was dying, to be honest with you,” he said.
While devastation and confusion seemed to mark Bone, Kelson and Libby’s initial experience with MS, all said reaching out to others has been rewarding.
To find MS and Friends type “multiple sclerosis self help chat” in a search engine such as Google.
Bone and Kelson will sell two CDs, for $10 each, at the 2 p.m. show and get together at Libby’s house Sunday, May 25 .
Libby welcomes the entire community to bring lawn chairs, snacks and family members to the free event. Her address is 25 Chadborne Road in Sebago Lake Village.
For more information, call 642-2562.