Tuesday 6 July 2010

Blackbird

Round 27: Winter 2026
last update/next update

Eliot Lane is 40, Cordy is 33, Timothy is 6 and Simon and Matthew are both 1.
(Debbie and Linnea are both 66, Luc is 33 and Mitchell is 7).

Narrated by Eliot Lane

I've been feeling almost like a single parent around here lately but sometimes things happen that can't be helped. We just have to cope with it.

About three weeks ago, Cordy received a phone call from the hospital, telling her that her mother Debbie had had a stroke.

So while the boys and I are going about our lives at home, Cordy has been running back and forth from the hospital to be with her mother.

I'd like to be with her, ideally, but we have two demanding one year-olds right now. I don't know if they're actually more demanding than Timothy was, or if it's just because there are two of them or if it's all because Cordy's not here.

I still enjoy spending time with the boys, but it's much more exhausting doing it solo.

Timothy has been a big help around the house, taking out the garbage and getting his own leftovers out of the fridge when he's hungry.

Not only chores but he caught Simon heading for the stairs the other day and distracted him with tickles until I could come and get him!

He's even been keeping up with his school work - all As!

He's been having his best friend Mitchell Carmody over almost every afternoon. It's one more kid for me to watch but Mitchell's not a troublemaker.

We're not going to take Timothy to see Debbie. She's not conscious at all, so we're worried it would be more upsetting than anything else. I have explained to him what's going on, where Cordy is and that Grandma Debbie might not be around for much longer.

He says he understands but I don't know if he really does.

Cordy has spent so many hours at the hospital over the past few weeks.

Luc isn't there as often or for as long as Cordy but he's pretty close to being a permanent fixture at the hospital too.

Cordy has come home hours after I've been expecting her sometimes, because she ends up nodding off right there in the chair.

She just crawls into bed on those nights. I don't know if she's still tired or just emotionally spent.

The bedside vigils are over now. The doctors told Cordy and Luc that the brain damage Debbie sustained in the stroke was too great and that she was unlikely to ever wake from the coma, so they jointly decided to turn off the life support.

Cordy is coping but she's finding this loss particularly difficult. She was always very close to Debbie and there's a real absence for her now.

Linnea and Cordy are getting there, in terms of improving their relationship but it'll never be the kind of lifelong bond she had with Debbie.

Too much time has passed and they just don't see eye to eye on most issues.

The boys are really appreciating having Cordy back at home too. I just wish it was for a more better reason.

I asked her to consider taking some time off work but she insisted on jumping right back in. Cordy's the type who likes to keep busy through these kinds of situations and was already worried she'd missed so much time. She's not going to be coaching for much longer, so she wants to go out on top.

Notes:
  • Title is from Blackbird by The Beatles.
  • Normally, I'd do an obituary for an elder death (and I'll probably continue to do that) but I hadn't really played Debbie properly since she and Linnea divorced, so I didn't have much to say. So it ended up working out better to just work it into Cordy's update. It's a lot easier to write this with a hospital!
  • Speaking of, I'm going to start building my own! This one has these little half-storeys in between each floor and they're driving me nuts. I think it's to allow those stealth stairs but I hate stealth stairs anyway. I want elevators, like a real hospital would have. There are some parts of this lot I love though, so I'm going to take some pictures and copy those parts and change the parts that are annoying.
  • A tidbit: before I had to kill her, Debbie had the want to flirt with Caterina Nihill. Oh, Debbie...good thing you didn't act on that. She doesn't swing that way.
  • My kids and teens rarely get A+s with Harder Grades installed, so I'm actually impressed now when they earn them. So yay for Timothy. I think the only other Sim who's got an A+ so far is Malcolm Novak.

15 comments:

  1. Wow, I liked seeing this in the update vs the obituary. I think it was seeing how the sims coped with what was going on vs seeing the facts. I can't wait to see the hospital.

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  2. I agree with Apple Valley, it was nice. How sad, I really liked Debbie, poor Luc and Cordy though, I'm sure they're feeling very distraught. Timothy is soo adorable!!! I love him!!! Matthew and Simon are adorable as well :)

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  3. Apple Valley, I might do it this way again. I might not. I think it'll depend on what else I have going on in the relevant family's update. I'm glad you liked it though. :)

    Not sure when I'll get started on the hospital but hopefully, it'll be like the school in that once I get started with it, I'll finish pretty quickly. It's just hard looking at that empty lot!

    Tessa, thanks! Cordy will be taking this harder with Luc. Cordy's relationship with Linnea has been quite troubled but Luc and Debbie seemed to clash a lot too.

    The boys are all really cute. I love how they all look different from each other but they still look like siblings (they kind of remind me of Lia, Maia and Tessa in that way). I've aged the twins up to see what they'll look like and I'm very impressed with Matthew! He turns out cute!

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  4. Wow, I didn't expect to see this when I started reading. (I'm trying to avoid looking at the tags nowadays before I've read the update.) It fitted the update very well.

    The kids are so adorable! And yay for Timothy for getting A+, that's a real achievement with the Harder Grades mod.

    I'm building my own hospital too and for the same reasons you are going to build yours. I've got the exterior done and most of the interior but then I got fed up before I had finished it.

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  5. So sad. :( I liked seeing the hospital updates, it really added to what they've been through.

    I use that same hospital with the little half storeys for my retirement home and they are very annoying, which is why I haven't used the retirement home in a long time, lol. ;)

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  6. Let's see if Blogger will let me post! My reply above was not there yesterday and now the posts I was replying to are gone. Argh!

    Sari, thanks and heh, I do the same thing with tags!

    Last night, I got most of the exterior shell done for the hospital. That's the hardest part for me, so I'm happy. With any luck, Lia will be the last Sim to give birth in the old one. I've got an update planned next round which will require me to use quite a bit of the hospital and I definitely want to be done with it by then.

    Shana, thanks, glad it worked well!

    I was just wondering about your retirement home the other day. I couldn't remember if all the residents had died or whether you just got sick of playing them. Now I know! I really hate those half storeys. Lot downloads should come with a warning if they have those!

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  7. Awww poor Cordy and Luc, it's tough losing a parent. I do love the update vs. obituary though. I'm sure it would be tough to do that with everyone, but it felt more personal this way.

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  8. Aww, I'm sorry for Luc and Corddy's loss. But I'm glad she's dealing with it.

    I just got rid of that hospital too. I need elevators. I found a different one, since I couldn't translate the one that was in my head into the game. LOL

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  9. It worked out nice to work in Debbie's death into this update.
    I understand that Cordy wants to go back to work, it keeps her mind going, so she doesn't think about Debbie too much.
    I'm sure it was hard on the couple, Cordy in the hospital all the time and Eliot all alone with the boys, but I think they want that time again now, if it means that there wouldn't be a death.

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  10. Mizzgin03, especially when the remaining parent is not the best! Linnea is trying though, and she's much better than she used to be.

    More and more, I'm thinking I might switch to doing the deaths this way. I'll try it with my next couple of deaths and see how I go.

    Riverdale, oh, I've been there! I've had so many ideas for lots and then when I try to build them, I fail. Totally.

    Tanja, thanks. Cordy's a Fortune Sim, so she's generally go go go with work. Eliot's Fortune secondary, so he understands.

    The whole ordeal was tough on the family but Eliot did a good job holding up the fort at home while Cordy was with her mother.

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  11. That was a good update. Sad that Debbie died but I liked seeing Cordy and Luc at the hospital. It made it more real. I do like the obits, too, with a look back through the years. I'd be content with either one.

    I know Cordy's really going to miss Debbie but hopefully she'll deal with her death ok. She's got a great husband and 3 other handsome little men at home to keep her mind occupied.

    Good luck building your hospital. Making the actual building and figuring out the layout is always the hardest part for me. But once that's done, I can get it decorated fairly quickly if I have the time. I know what you come up with will look great and you'll make me want to redo my medical centre LOL. I barely redecorated it after I downloaded it so it won't be all bad. It's pretty small, though, like all my lots tend to be. :\ The loadtime is great but sometimes it's hard to fit everything I want in there.

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  12. This entry made me so sad. I guess it was just seeing Cordy having to deal with Debbie's sickness and death. The pictures in the hospital were a wonderful and saddening touch.

    But Timothy is adorable. How sweet and helpful he is. Love the picture of him saving his little brother with tickles!

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  13. Danielle, I think, in the future, I might combine the two types of entry. Like have the regular update and then *****, followed by the obituary. I like the walk down memory lane but after thinking about it a few days, I like integrating the death into the story too.

    Cordy definitely has more than enough to keep her busy, with her four boys (heh, Eliot included!) and work. I may move her into law soon, so she'll need to focus on that too.

    The hospital is going quite well! I've done two hospital rooms (because I'll never need more than that, really) and a waiting room/reception area. Next up will be the gift shop! It's looking really good. I'm planning on having Lia give birth there. It's not done but I have enough finished that I can fake it!

    Lunar, got me right in the middle of replying to Danielle!

    It was a pretty sad update, I guess. Most of us have gone through that awful wait where someone's in hospital and it's not looking good. It definitely wasn't a happy time for this family.

    I do love Timothy though! He's only got 2 nice points but he's quite a good little boy. Voluntarily does his chores, is good with his brothers, nice to his parents. He's very similar to Eliot in that way. Of the three boys, it'll probably be Simon who's the most trouble! Mean and outgoing!

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  14. I think I like the updates vs. obituaries too. Though you usually do an update anyway following the obituary, I think. So whatever works!

    But awww, RIP Debbie! You did a great job on the hospital scenes, very realistic the way they handled it.

    I didn't end up building a new hospital of my own (I was using the same one as you, I think, with the half-storeys) - but I found one at Sims Urbania that I really liked. It's linked on my CC page. I have like 0 time for building right now, as much as it's tempting me, lol!

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  15. Laura, thank you! I do normally do an update right after an obituary but it only ever deals with the aftermath. This was the first time in a long time that I've had a death IN the actual update. Like I said further up, it's a lot easier when you have a hospital and you don't have to have people just drop dead in the living room!

    Oh, I think I've seen that hospital! I'm still plugging away at mine and I'm really happy with how mine is turning out so far. The whole bottom floor is done. Two more to go!

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