Monday 23 August 2010

Sleep if you can

Round 28: Summer 2028
last update/next update

Mina Lachance is 78, Abigail Carmody is 45, Jesse is 43, Mitchell is 9 and Austin and Lauren are both 7.
(Jonas is 50, Nick is 25 and Sarah is 23)

Narrated by Jesse Carmody

Over the past year or so, I noticed that Mina hasn't been as active as usual, which I put down to her age but I didn't expect to find her collapsed on her bedroom floor.

I wasn't sure what to do but I gathered my wits quickly and managed to get Mina, Abigail and the kids to the hospital.

Mina was admitted right away and Abigail stayed with her in the room. Mina knew Abigail was there but it didn't seem like she had the energy to respond.

I was left to call Jonas and Nick and let them know what was going on, and to watch the kids. Mitchell was fine. He's more than old enough to know that a hospital is not a playground.

I couldn't say the same for Lauren and Austin, who started up a game of cops and robbers in the waiting area.

I've been trying to be tougher with them lately though and it seems to be working. I only had to tell them to cut it out once before they obeyed and sat down.

All three of them were curious about what was going on with their grandma, of course. I didn't have a good feeling about it but I didn't want to upset them until I knew for sure.

By the time Jonas arrived, Mina was unconscious. Alive but unconscious.

The doctors didn't seem too optimistic about her chances. We were advised to say our goodbyes and call anyone else who might want to see Mina.

Abigail and I thought it was best if the kids saw Mina. We felt like it might be scarier for them if she disappeared behind the door of the hospital room and they never saw her again.

Austin and Lauren were apprehensive about getting too close but Mitchell understood what was going on a little better. He went right up to her bedside and we let him have a little time with her before I took the kids home.

Nick arrived just as I was leaving. Mina passed away a few hours after we left, with just Jonas, Abigail and Nick with her.

With Mina gone, there definitely feels like there's something missing, for all of us.

There are so many reminders of Mina, all around the house. She still had some kind of project she was in the middle of on her workbench and it was a while before Abigail was able to clear it away.

Abigail has been extremely affectionate with me since Mina's death. We went through a rough patch a couple of years ago and I hope this is a permanent change for us.

Of the kids, Lauren is the one who talks about Mina the most. It often seems to come out of nowhere, so I suppose she's always got it in the back of her mind.

We just try to answer whatever questions she has as they come up.

Of our three kids, Austin is the one who struggles most at school. He's very smart but he's easily distracted. His grandmother's death has been quite a big distraction for him, obviously, so his grades have slipped again.

Abigail and I have been taking it in turns to do his homework with him. It tends to sit in the bottom of his school bag unless we ask him about it.

Abigail thought Mitchell might be the one who was most curious about death after Mina died but he hasn't wanted to talk about it at all.

Abigail keeps prodding him about it and he's just getting irritated. I don't think he's the type to want to talk about his feelings all the time.

Once Abigail was feeling up to having non-family over to the house again, we had Nick bring his girlfriend Sarah over to meet us. Sarah is my cousin's daughter, so I'd met her before but I hadn't seen her since she was tiny.

It was easy to see how much Nick likes Sarah. I don't think he took his eyes off her all night.

Abigail adores her. Abigail and Sarah actually have a lot in common. They're both very health-conscious and both are very extroverted and friendly.

Sarah must have been surprised to meet Mitchell, Austin and Lauren after Nick. Most people would describe Nick as very shy but none of his brothers and sisters are shy at all!

Mitchell, Austin and Lauren were all clamouring for Sarah's attention all through dinner. The rest of us could hardly get a word in.

Sarah was very patient though and listened to all of their stories about school, their friends and whatever else they wanted to tell her about.

It's really good to see Nick so happy again. Abigail was so worried about him after Adrienne and now she's thrilled he's found someone else.

Notes:
  • Title is from Sleep If You Can by The Webb Brothers.
  • In case it wasn't clear, Mina's death was not the ROS death for this round. That one will be due to fire and is still to come. :(
  • Mina's obituary is here. In the future, obituaries will come at the end of the update, rather than as a separate entry.
  • I think I'm on my way to fixing the ACR weirdness between Abigail and Jesse. I checked her token this round and her One was Vanessa Gentry. Um...okay. Abigail is straight, as is Vanessa, so I'm not sure how that happened. I re-set her One to Jesse and made it static. That, at the very least, stopped her from rejecting Jesse's ACR interactions (the EA ones weren't affected). Their attraction score is still displaying as zero, even though they're 3 bolts and their attraction score is actually 138.

19 comments:

  1. Oh no, Mina :(

    On the bright side I'm glad that Sarah and the family get along well, and it's cute that the kids all kept hogging her attention.

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  2. I am really liking how you're filming the collapse of the elderly sims before they die, very realistic. I like it-but I also don't like it, it makes me sad :(

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  3. Thanks for commenting!

    Renegade, I was definitely sad to say goodbye to Mina. I had a lot of fun with her over the years.

    Sarah is really sweet, so of course Nick's family love her too. It's looking like it'll be a long term thing for them, so that can only be a good thing.

    Apple Valley, yeah, I like including the deaths within the main story. I still find it very hard to write though.

    I always stall when I have to kill off a Sim. I keep the family paused in the background for like two hours sometimes! But it was Mina's time, unfortunately. :(

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  4. That is sad. I'm sure Mina will be very missed by her family. I can't imagine how hard it is to write a death especially one that comes from ROS.

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  5. Love your new banner! Whose feet are those If I may ask?

    When I loads the story I was like man Mina is old. But I figured she would be ok forgetting that your writing these I to the updates. Poor Mina and her unfinished business. I think he latter is sometimes the most difficult thing for loved ones to let go of.

    In the picture of Jesse just standing there I was like Move your cute little butt and help the woman geez. Mitchell is really adorable and the twins playing in the hospital from utter boredom was pretty great.

    Nick has parent approval for Sarah now they need to get engaged asap. ;) with the different personalities I'm guessing Jesse had an influence on his kids being more outgoing when compared to Nick. Abigails choice in men I've always thought were rather opposite.


    Odd on her one being Vanessa. I can see that screwing everything up.

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  6. The new banner looks great! I'm sad to see Mina go but I loved your hospital scenes. I also LOVE Sarah and Nick together :). I hope they go the distance

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  7. Its always hard when a sims passes. I had several of mine die this round due to ROS. I was looking for Mina's obituary. I love how detailed yours are compared to mine. RIP Mina.

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  8. Oh, no. RIP Mina. :(

    I'm glad that the family likes Sarah. Nick and Sarah are so cute together.

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  9. The new banner looks great! You did an awesome job.

    It was so sad to read about Mina's death but I liked the realism.

    I'm glad that Sarah gets along with Nick's family. They are such a sweet couple.

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  10. Oh, how sad to loose Mina! Hope the kids are adapting okay. Everyone deals with grief differently.

    Sarah and Nick are cute together!

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  11. Oh how sad to see Mina go.
    The faces of those children when they walked into her room, they looked so sad.
    I'm glad things are going better between Abigail and Jesse, I can't imagine how it would be lose your mom and husbad at the same time.
    Nick really adores Sarah, you can see it from the look on his face, I'm glad his mom likes her too.

    I see you've put up your new banner! It looks great, as I said before.
    Maybe it's just me, but I keep wondering who's feet are on it :)

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  12. First off, let me just say you're new banner looks amazing! Although I will miss the other one since it had a lot of memories on it (Nick and hair, Finn and Victoria pre-college, Steve and Olivia pre-baby/marriage), but I really really like the new one too :D

    Awww, it's so sad to see Mina go :( She kind of marks the end of the era of crazy romance sims :P I went back and read a few of her archives, and she was quite the handful! But it's good to see that she got to have a fulfilling life and have lots of grand-babies :)

    Nick and Sarah are definitely way up there on the super-adorable couple list for sure! It was nice to see that Nick's family took to her well, especially his siblings!

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  13. Wow, you guys were busy while I was sleeping! Thanks for the comments.

    HeredonCove, by her family and me, lol!

    I find the elder deaths harder to write in than the ROS ones, actually. But I find the ROS ones harder to carry out in game. I'm already dreading the one I have coming up. :\

    Maisie, thank you! The feet belong to Tessa and Dominic. :)

    You'll soon notice several Sims sticking around much longer than Mina did. I have a couple scheduled to live until their 90s and more who will live until their 80s. So getting to late 70s won't be a death sentence in Sullivan any longer!

    Ah, Jesse! I don't see him as quite the brightest spark but he got himself together pretty quickly and got everyone in the car. Nothing could have been done for Mina, sadly. :(

    We'll see what happens with Nick and Sarah next round. As for Nick and his much more outgoing siblings, you'd think it was due to Jesse but no. Caleb and Abigail are both relatively outgoing and all of their children are relatively outgoing. Except Nick. Nick's an anomaly. He's very nice like Abigail but I have no idea where the shyness came in!

    And yes, Caleb and Jesse are two very different men! Abigail sort of just fell into a relationship with Caleb. They hadn't really been dating that long when she got pregnant.

    Mizzgin03, thanks! The hospital scenes were a bit of a pain to put together, so I'm glad they've been appreciated!

    I think Nick and Sarah have a fantastic chance of growing old together. ;)

    Bernz, several! Goodness, I don't think I could do that. I'd be too sad!

    I didn't do an obituary for Mina. I was going to put it in at the end of this entry but it got late and I was tired. I'll put it up separately, probably tomorrow.

    Shana, sad to see Mina go, for sure. :(

    Sarah's very likeable, just like Nick. I love them together too, though I didn't think I would, initially, when I first realised what great chemistry they had (which was when Sarah was 12!)

    Sari, thanks, I'm pretty proud of it!

    I'm glad that the hospital scenes turned out okay and that everyone likes Sarah and Nick together. They're really quite adorable.

    gallowaytownship, I think the kids will be alright but it's very sad because she was their last remaining grandparent. Jesse only had an uncle in Sullivan and Abigail's dad died a long time ago. :( Nick doesn't have any grandparents left either but it's pretty good for your grandmother to live until you're 25. Only one of mine did.

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  14. Tanja, you know, I didn't even set that shot up. I had placed a few pose boxes in the waiting area, all ready to pose the kids and then they just filed in like that. Same with Mitchell going up to Mina's bed. It was great.

    Losing Jesse as well as her mother would have been too much for poor Abigail, so I'm glad they're going better too. It had really started to be something I couldn't write around, because they try to ACR each other all the time and it kept getting rejected and then they'd fall out of love. :(

    Nick looking at Sarah smiling is another thing I didn't have to pose. He just does that. It's really cute.

    And thank you. I don't know if you saw my reply to Maisie but the Sims in the picture are Tessa and Dominic. :)

    Tessa, thank you! I'm planning on making a few more banners, so maybe I'll do like Laura and put up a post with the old ones, as I change them. Definitely a lot of memories in that one!

    LOL, oh, yeah, Mina had a lot of fun in her time! After Pascal died, she didn't roll any romantic wants for so long! It's only in the last round or so that she occasionally rolls the want to go on a date or woohoo. Pascal was her one true love, I guess. They didn't have quite as many grandchildren as Maria (if she was alive, I think she'd have 16 or 17 by now!) but 8 grandkids is nothing to sneeze at!

    Mitchell, Austin and Lauren would probably like just about anybody Nick brought home! All of Nick's little brothers and sisters adore him. But it works out quite well for Sarah. :)

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  15. Weirdness, I just realized that I can't see your new banner.

    Awww... Nick's an anomaly! That makes him all the sweeter actually.

    But that whole dinner was very adorable, lol. Good to see Sarah fitting in so well with Nick's family.

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  16. Awwww... that's sad... and I'm a bit late commenting here but I wanted to add that I liked the hospital scenes too... I love it when people go to the trouble of enacting things that don't happen 'naturally' in the game, and all the pictures look great. Kind of a nicer goodbye for Mina, than just having her die and disappear suddenly.

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  17. Lunar, weird! Maybe you need to refresh or something?

    I actually like that Nick is shy out of nowhere too. It's like he was just supposed to be that way, independent of his parents. Or maybe he got it from his grandparents - all of them were relatively shy (Maria was the most outgoing, with 4 points). But I prefer to think of him as an anomaly. ;)

    I'm already excited to play Nick and Sarah next round, even though it's so far away.

    Blackcat, thanks. I'm enjoying doing more of these kinds of scenes, as frustrating as they can be sometimes. I'm getting more and more attached to my Sims as I go on with this hood, so it's nice to be able to give them a more significant send-off.

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  18. Aww, RIP Mina. I like the way you're writing in your elder deaths now. I'll have to remember some of these tricks when it's my elders' time. I still have a few sim years though. But it's cool that you're getting so much use out of your hospital. The scenes look great and add so much realness.

    Aww, Nick and Sarah. That's so sweet how he was standing there looking at her. So glad that they liked Sarah and that Nick is finally happy. Mitchell, Austin and Lauren are adorable. It sucks when little kids have to deal with death like that. I hope Austin can pull his grades back up.

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  19. Danielle, LOL, yeah, I like getting to use my hospital but it's starting to seem like all they ever do is have babies and die there. No one ever gets better! I'm going to try to write in some non-sad, non-birth hospital scenes!

    I love when my Sims act like they're in love and I love especially that Nick is so in love.

    I'm so excited to age Mitchell up. I think he ends up hot, but I can't remember, lol.

    I think the kids will bounce back. Sims seem to deal with elder death better than when younger Sims die but that might be my imagination!

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