Name: Wendell Davis Cartwright
Nickname: Dell
FC: Luka Sabbat
Age: Twenty-Seven
Birthday: November 19th
Gender & Pronouns: Cisgender Male, He/Him/His
Sexual & Romantic Orientation: Pansexual Panromantic
Occupation: Owner of Ruby’s Diner, often picks up odd jobs around town when he needs help making ends meet.
Neighborhood: Willowdale. He’s a little more financially stable now than when he was at the time he bought his house. It was intended to be just a starter home but considering that he and his late wife lived in it together he can’t bear to leave it behind.
Positive Personality Trait(s): Dedicated, Compassion, Fortitude, Diligent, Curiosity
Negative Personality Trait(s): Pessimistic, Emotional, Envious, Over-Protective, Melancholic
Extras:
- Has an M tattooed on in the inside of his right bicep
- Still wears his wedding ring
BIOGRAPHY
This bio contains mentions of drug use, blood, pregnancy + birth complications, and death.
Wendell ‘Dell’ Cartwright was born to Ruth and George Cartwright in Stillwater, CA shortly after his father finished settling back into civilian life after serving as a soldier in WWII. He brought some much needed joy to his father after enduring all the harrowing events of the war and thus revitalized his parent’s marriage. An outgoing little boy right pretty much right off the bat the only child would entertain guests with his playful antics and seemingly insatiable curiosity. His company was well enjoyed by his parent’s friends and family, as well as those who occupied his neighborhood.
As he aged into some independence he took quickly to ‘adventuring’ around the town with his friends, often getting into trouble as they rarely ever knew when enough was enough. Though serious damage was rarely ever done, aside from the baseball through Mrs. Schofield’s window… Just as he had when he was a child, Dell had an urge to get as much out of life as he could possibly manage. Voracity to learn simply possessed him to a near fault. Only through his ability to harness it to his academic benefit was he able to convince those around him that it was a positive asset instead of a deficit.
Soon high school rolled around and he was ready to take it on with the same enthusiasm as he had his earlier schooling. The first two years were business as usual, until his desire to explore led him to the world of substances. Marijuania, LSD, shrooms, even the occasional bump of cocaine all soon drifted into his world thanks to a friend of a friend. As much as his parents despised this behavior, Dell refused to let his habits derail his life and in stereotypical stubborn teenager fashion, he also wanted to prove his parents wrong about drugs ruining his life. It was a balancing act, but he did manage to keep his school performances at the very least consistent with his record if not better. The use of hallucinogens actually aided his performance in subjects such as art and music. He would discover that this was a passion of his, though he wasn’t very naturally good at either he would toil away at the guitar or a sketchbook and charcoal until he was ‘adjacent to acceptable’ as he would always say.
During his senior year his life was filled with color in both the metaphorical sense as he was as socially outgoing as he ever was, often stopping by multiple parties or friends’ houses each day, and in the literal sense as he continued to experiment with psychedelics and artwork. One evening he ended up at a house party hosted by someone he didn’t know, listening to the music and enjoying the libations when something else caught his eye.
A female peer that he had seen here and there in school, but never really seen like he was that night. The way she moved uninhibited to the music and simply thriving off of the energies in the living room that night drew him in. Certain events of that night were not committed to his memory, likely due to the influences he was under, but he certainly recalled meeting her on the dance floor and taking her offered hand. The two of them pulled into one another’s worlds and beginning to meld. Eventually moving from the main area of the party to a quieter place where their lips met repeatedly to a similar rhythm as their bodies had due to the music. When the sun lifted up over the horizon the following morning she and Dell woke up on the couch with limbs entangled with one another. Sobered in more ways than one, they introduced themselves a bit more formally. Her name was revealed to be Mary Ford, and soon she was all he could think about. They found that they shared multiple interests besides just the use of psychedelics. Mary also found herself possessed by the voracity, the hunger, for life. To Dell she was perfect, and she felt the same for him.
Dell and Mary started going steady soon after. Their romance drew attention from across the school. Both of them were a wild child on their own, together they were a force to be reckoned with. However both of them were often too drawn up in one another to be worried about conflict with anyone else.
The summer after their high school education came to a close they each put the entirety of their funds into a large purchase. A red VW van. While their former classmates headed off for college or the workforce, Dell and Mary spent their first year of complete independence heading for unfamiliar spaces up and down California’s coast. Nothing but their van and each other by their sides.
Their impulsive and fiery lifestyle began to slow down towards the next fall, the two of them were nineteen and ready to continue their taking on of the world. After a sudden and unusual bout of carsickness from Mary altered them to the fact that their duo was set to become a trio. Any fear and unpreparedness they felt was overshadowed by the excitement they held for the burgeoning life they were now anticipating. Despite the new development they continued their ventures across the state, documenting their story for their unborn child with Mary’s polaroid.
When her due date was slowly beginning to approach and the realization that they could not raise a family inside of a van, the couple returned to their mutual hometown where their announcement was made for them by the undeniable presence of a bump beneath Mary’s shift dress. After selling their beloved van they use the profit to place a downpayment on a home and a marriage license. Officially making them Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright.
As they decorated a nursery with the play of a radio behind them they became enamored with a certain song. Ruby Baby by Dion. They had heard the tune before and it was always a favorite of theirs, but now it felt even more meaningful as the two became convinced that Mary would give birth to a daughter who would be an equally loved namesake for the song they adored. While their instinct would indeed prove them right later on, neither one of them were able to predict the harrowing circumstances that their child would make her way into the world through.
In the middle of the night Dell was awoken by Mary white-knuckling his arm as pain gripped her body. Their faded yellow sheets that covered their bed were becoming saturated with blood. Something was horribly wrong.
Dell took his wife to Stillwater General as fast as he was able to, minutes after their arrival Mary was whisked away from a vast hallway. Only managing to shout a frantic profession of his love after her before she disappeared from his sight, it would be the last time that he was able to set eyes on her alive.
An agonizingly long wait later in a sterile waiting room and an equally sterilely dressed doctor approached Dell and shattered his world with three simple words.
“I’m so sorry…”
The explanation of how Mary had undetected placenta previa with placenta accreta, an overwhelmingly fatal combination, had meant that no matter what they wouldn’t have been able to have saved her fell on a largely unaware Dell. It felt like he was underwater, almost forgetting to even breath through his hysterics, unable to focus on the words as he thought of how the love of his life was suddenly ripped away from him.
And then the doctor broke through the ice surrounding his brain with the news that he was now a father to a healthy baby girl. Nearly instantly he rose to his shaky feet and asked to see her.
The doctor complied with the request and Dell was soon meeting his daughter in the hospital’s nursery. Cradling her tiny body in his arms, the confusing flood of love he had for her now mixed with the devastation in his chest. Neither one dulling the intensity of the other.
He considered the temptation of naming her after her mother, but it seemed there was only enough room for one Mary Cartwright in both the world at large and in his heart. Not to mention it felt like a disservice to go back on the promise they had made to one another to name her after their the song that had become the soundtrack to their lives the last few months. So he found a compromise of honor both their agreement and his sweetheart by bestowing the name Ruby Elaine Cartwright. Passing on Mary’s own middle name onto their child.
Dell’s parents were a great support in the immediate months following Ruby’s birth, helping him settle into parenthood and single parenthood all at once. Soon he developed a rhythm of attending to her needs and not forgetting his own. It didn’t feel right, raising Ruby without Mary, but it was now his reality. There was no avoiding that. His father in particular helped him out with getting back on his feet. He showed Dell the ropes of fatherhood and took him under his wing in the world of business, imparting various aspects of knowledge about said world as Mr. Cartwright himself worked in business management.
Using what he learned he was able to begin to not feel as though he was no longer drowning, at least when it came to paying his bills. Dell continued to work alongside his father until about three years ago when he decided to put the money he had held onto to good use, eventually coming across an investment that felt almost cosmically fated to come into his possession when the owners of a local restaurant were looking to sell. Thus leading to how Dell became the owner of the aptly named, Ruby’s Diner.
Since then he’s been splitting his time between his now eight year old daughter and managing the diner. He’s also trying not to forget to spend a little time on himself as well. Managing the still healing wound of losing Mary with therapy and self-expression via music and art. Though his daughter has always been, and always will be, his number one priority, much like her mother once was.
