Sunday 1 November 2009

Exeter resident dies in road collision

by Abigail Lachance, Winter 2015

Exeter resident, Leo Royce (né Draper), 55, was killed last night when the car he was travelling in ran off the road and collided with a tree. Royce was rushed to hospital but his injuries proved fatal and he was pronounced dead at 8pm. The driver of the carpool, Edric Barton, escaped without injury and could not be reached for comment.



Constable Courtney Edwards informed Royce's wife Kit and his daughter, Asha, who were at home awaiting his return from work. Asha, 18, had been planning on moving out but now intends to remain with her mother, 55, at home.

The couple's eldest daughter, Zaria, 27, was on vacation with her partner, Max Nihill, 28, at their beach cottage on Cape Elizabeth at the time of her father's death. She and Nihill will return home as soon as they are able.

As well as his wife and daughters, Royce leaves behind one grandson, Joshua, aged 1.

Leo Royce was born in 1960 to Elias and Nathalie Draper and was a lifetime resident of Exeter. He had one sister Ottilie, who died 5 years ago after a short illness.

After being expelled from Suffolk University and joining the military for a brief stint, he became a well-respected figure in the gaming industry, designing many games for his company. Colleague Jonas Lachance, 37, called him an inspiration to all of those who worked under him.

Leo and Kit Royce were married in 1988, shortly after the birth of their daughter Zaria. The couple would have celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary next summer.

Notes:
  • As you might have guessed, Leo was the Sim who drew the "Death by Car Accident" ROS. I stuck this in now, outside of an actual update, because the Royces are not scheduled to be played until Spring 2016, which is very late in the round for an ROS like this (I think, anyway). I could have moved them up in the rotation but I have something planned for Asha when I play her and I think it might work better if it's some time after Leo's death.
  • So there's Abigail's first obituary! I also wanted the whole thing formatted differently but I could not for the life of me figure out how to make the text wrap around the pictures nicely, without having the writing go over the pics or leaving huge areas of white space.
  • RIP Leo! He really made something of himself after being expelled from college, although the Royces were never anything close to rich. I've had this post written out without pictures since I rolled the ROS and had been dreading going in and killing him. The witch post yesterday? Might have been me stalling! But I want to get back to playing for real, so I had to get it over with! Leo's death was not a fear of Kit's or Asha's but they're quite distraught regardless. I played Zaria at the vacation home before Leo died, so I don't yet know how she'll react.
  • It's a bit weird to think of my Sims being born pre-2008! Sullivan started in 2008 and has always been a modern hood but I think the dates lend a bit of realism to the obituary, so I left them in.

19 comments:

  1. Oh no! I swear my heart skipped a beat when I saw the title. I don't know why but reading an obituary makes it feel so much more real.

    Rest in peace, Leo.

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  2. Has Cissie said reading it in obituary format makes it more real. RIP Leo

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  3. Oh, man! Sadness. :( But at least now we won't be sitting on our hands, expecting that fatal entry. I also really like how the obituary was "written" by your actual obituary writer!

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  4. I like this way of announcing their deaths. Very sad and poetic. RIP Leo.

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  5. Thanks guys!

    I've been toying with this format for a while and I really like it. I found it a little harder to write though - I'm not used to this style, I guess!

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  6. Oh, no! :( I like the obituary style of writing it, but this was still so sad to read about. RIP Leo. :(

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  7. Thanks Shana.

    You didn't see it, obviously, but I killed Leo with a satellite, which is probably the worst looking Sim death. It looks quite painful!

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  8. How horribly sad! His sister, and now him. That's rough. When I was reading Evan Moretti's update, and saw Asha's father had died, I had to read it asap. Too bad.

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  9. Yes, neither of Elias and Nathalie's kids were destined to see their elder birthday, apparently. :( I was looking at some old posts at Lakeside Heights and Laura had a similar situation with one of her families, except both the daughters died at 17 and both were from ROSs! Leo was an ROS but Ottilie died of her own accord.

    Next update I post will be Asha and Kit. I usually do the college post first but it's definitely time to revisit the Royces.

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  10. Such sad tragedy. I had to come read more about Leo's death and I like the way you wrote it too. I did one Obit a while back for Asya, and it was extremely hard for me to write. The obits sum up a Sim's life very well, and I like that you kept in the dates. Dates really ground everything. If that makes sense. LOL!

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  11. I'm glad you liked it. Some of the dates were approximate, because the events were before this calendar system.

    I remember Asya's death and her obit! That feels like so long ago!

    I've already started to write some of the obits for some Sims I know don't have much time left. I'm like CNN except I won't post mine before they actually die. LOL!

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  12. ROFL!! That's hilarious and so true...you got me with that one.

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  13. I probably shouldn't be so smug about it because I've definitely put up stuff before I was supposed to as well.

    But it never involved the death of the Pope or Fidel Castro, so I guess the world will forgive me!

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  14. I'm a few entries past this but I wanted to come back and say I like the way you wrote that. But how sad! :( I saw someone else write obits on another blog and I was wondering if I'd ever be able to write it up like that. His final pic is cute though. He looked happy.

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  15. Danielle, thanks, glad you liked it! I haven't done one like this in a while but I haven't had an accidental death in a while either.

    Leo was pretty happy before he died. He adored Joshua, not to mention his wife and daughters. I was sad to kill him. :(

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  16. Oh no! Leo was so handsome! I will miss him, and the way he'd show up at his daughters' dates. :(

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  17. Rachel, oh, I still get sad about Leo when I think about him! He really did love Josh and he was so little when he died. :(

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  18. As soon as I saw Leo's picture, my heart sank, and I immediately thought of his sister. My mind wandered to Kit and if she'd eventually move on the way Lake eventually did, but she looks too broken up for that, at least right now. I hope it doesn't end up being a curse like Nevio Anderson in BS. However, the obit was very well written, and I imagine any sim would love to get one like that.

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  19. Fini, oh, I was so sorry to kill Leo! I won't spoil anything about Kit but she's very lucky to have the two daughters she's got. She will lean heavily on them for a while yet.

    I do a little obit like this for all my Sims now, though I didn't always. I started doing them around this point and came to really enjoy the walk down memory lane.

    Thanks for reading!

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