meet eileen de la cruz, a stay-at-home mom who lives in the old ashmore district of ashmore. she's 35, born 03/17, making her a pisces - which makes sense, she is pretty stubborn and bright. she's originally from ashmore, oregon; i wonder if she'll stay in ashmore forever ― tiffany boone, lesbian, woman + she/her.
BIOGRAPHY:
born eileen attaway
mother was a nurse and her father often jumped around between jobs, with neither frequently around
grew up with her parents often fighting, learning that was what love was like
she met diangelo de la cruz when they were five on the first day of kindergarten, the two quickly becoming best friends
she didn't make a lot of friends throughout school, as an awkward child often more interested in simply disappearing into books rather than dealing with the world around her
she always did well in school largely naturally, though while she was often a curious child who liked to learn she never much enjoyed school itself
it was in middle school that she first started to notice her attraction to other women, though she was quick to push it all down and deny it
the first moment she can now remember was while having a sleepover with one of her few friends, curled up together in the other girl's bed and watching a movie together, but all she could focus on was the idea of leaning over to kiss her
she never had much concrete reasoning for her denial or fear, besides perhaps simply not considering it a real option at the time
it was then in high school that her and angel's relationship changed when he asked her out during their sophomore year
eileen had no interest in him the way he had in her, but she did know that she loved him deeply and didn't truly believe that romantic love existed, and compared to her parents she considered that a win
she also simply wanted to make him happy, and had no concept that allowing him to do whatever he pleased and then pretending to like it wasn't the way to make him happy
in the spring of their junior year, eileen managed to find herself pregnant
it wasn't ideal, it was far from ideal, but they both decided they wanted to keep the baby and angel proposed the day after she told him
her parents were less supportive, she was allowed to stay in their house up until her eighteenth birthday but then she had to get out
so on january 10, 2006, zee de la cruz was born, and on the day of her birthday two months later she and angel went to the courthouse to get married
eileen, angel, and zee all moved in together shortly after in a small rental house in old ashmore, where they have raised their child for the seventeen years since
that was also when her and angel's marriage started to fall apart, she was still deeply in denial about her sexuality but slowly with proximity angel started to notice just how unhappy she was in their relationship
the real breaking point for eileen came when eileen tried to treat him for his twenty-first birthday
their sex life had died within a year of them moving in together, so eileen had for the end of the night bought a new lingerie set to try to reinvigorate it for him
finally, angel simply decided to talk to her about what was so obvious to him, that she was a lesbian and didn't need to do any of this for him, which she didn't react well to
it took another year for eileen to be able to fully realize and admit that she was a lesbian, with angel there supporting her the whole time as he could, support that included a very awkward and ill advised movie night viewing of imagine me & you
in the end a lot of their future planning after everything settled was based around then three year old zee and how best to raise them
they didn't want to split their childhood between two homes unless absolutely necessary, and with eileen dedicating all of her time to raising them it wasn't feasible for her to move out anyhow
they also saw no point in dealing with the process of getting legally divorced, the only reason they could think of for going through the lengthy, expensive, and complicated process was the possibility of marrying someone else, which neither had the time for
eileen's first relationship with another woman after the breakup was a mess, toxic and codependent, and one that they can't stop coming back to every few years
the only thing that kept eileen from fully self destructing for this woman was needing to care for zee, the thought of how she would be able to care for them pulling her off the ledge of the worst decisions she was wanting to make
and angel was there supporting her throughout it all, their friendship had been deeply wounded, but through everything the both of them did love each other, and while it might be fully platonic the two did still consider themselves some sort of soul mates
now zee is in their senior year of high school and mere months from their eighteenth birthday, and eileen and angel are trying to figure out how to be able to put them through college, and if that's fully what they want
eileen is also trying to figure out what she's going to do with the rest of her life, since the entire reason she was in the home was to be able to care for zee
when she was pregnant—and infrequently when she could find someone to give her just a few hours when she had the time—she had worked as a waitress, but growing up she had always been told how smart she was and then what a waste it was for her to end up "just being a mom", but also if they weren't certain they could put zee through college then eileen going herself was out of the question just then
eileen never knew what she wanted to do with her life, and then had that decision largely made for her, but then that decision only lasted for so long
FUN FACTS:
eileen has found many ways to entertain herself through the day and while she works over the years such as; grey's anatomy dvds, daytime soap operas—including telenovelas and in more recent years with the expansion of what's available over the internet british and indian soaps as well, sewing—she has sewn all of zee's clothes herself since they were in preschool, and podcasts
eileen is fluent in both english and spanish, and while she took spanish for seven years in school most of her knowledge is actually from angel
eileen was named for her mother's favorite song when she was born, come on eileen by dexys midnight runners and the emerald express
POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS:
old school friends
mom friends
more family
old crushes/exes
a love interest???
EXISTING CONNECTIONS:
diangelo de la cruz — husband/best friend
zee de la cruz — child (npc)
first last — supportive extended family member
first last — toxic on-again-off-again girlfriend (currently off)












