character name: Sydney Heywood age & birthday:Â 35, December 5th, 1988 gender & pronouns: Cis woman, She/Her place of birth & time in East Haven: Born and raised in East Haven, left for 7 years for college and work district:Â Primrose Heights occupation: Owner of The Garden faceclaim: Rebecca Rittenhouse family:Â TBD Heywood, Julian Heywood, Simon Heywood
CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY TWs:Â death
PAST
Being born a Heywood comes with a large amount of responsibility. Even being born third in line out of four did not ease much of that. With the Heywoods being a founding family, her family took this to heart. They held their heads up high, they were proud of what the generations of Heywoods had done to build the town to prosper. Their name decorated streets, parks and of course the prospering university in the town that was making a good reputation for itself even outside the small area of Vermont. Sydney was born into this proud, and often times egotistical family and had the expectations set upon her shoulders from birth.Â
Sydney was expected to follow after her older sister Quinn, and of course her formidable mother. She was taught how to act like the proper young lady. How to eat with fourteen utensils, how to ride horses, how to ice skate, how to act in public, how to do the charity season and so much more. Though, despite the expectations placed on her, Sydney often felt like she could never truly relate to the family’s beliefs. She didn’t buy into what her mother told her of how special the family was, nor did she belief that they should believe they were better than others simply because of the prominent history of her family and the wealth they had amassed over the centuries. So from an early age she learned how to appease her mother’s expectations while being kind, down to earth and friendly to all. Her family may have done a lot for the town, both presently and through the centuries. But what was the point if no one truly liked you? And if you couldn’t truly like yourself?Â
Through the many classes, charities, being presented into society at her Cotillion, and even at DAR meetings once she was old enough, Sydney often stayed the warm light in the room. She did what was expected, but stayed true to herself and never compromised her morals. Sometimes there were fights with her mother who always wanted everything perfect, but with Quinn usually by her side, Sydney could make it through anything.Â
Sydney excelled in school as was expected of her. She got on the cheer squad freshman year, and eventually became captain of the squad. She was student body president, and even won homecoming queen and prom queen her senior year. History was always her favorite class, though English and Literature classes usually followed close behind. Sydney always had a book tucked away in her bag no matter where she was. Often whenever she had a moment to sneak away, Sydney would and devour a few pages before she was called back to the spotlight by her mother. During her time on the cheer squad, Sydney grew close to a girl named Stevie Rivers who was one grade below her. She never quite understood how her father acted so cold, distant and even angry when she hung out with the girl and when she had her over to the Heywood mansion. Unknown to her, Stevie was actually her half-sister. Her father had an affair with Stevie’s mother while Sydney’s own mother was pregnant with her and when she was an infant.Â
When it came time to go to school, she choose Northeastern University and decided to double major in history and business. Sydney loved Boston and college. For the first time in her life she could simply breathe and simply be. She was no longer a Heywood, a prominent member of the community. She was simply Sydney, another person in the thousands of people in the city of Boston. After college, Sydney decided to stay in the city when she landed a job through an internship she had her senior year with one of the many vibrant museums in the city. She loved her job, she loved the history they highlighted. Sydney settled into the city and started making a life there. While out bar hopping with some friends one night, she ran into Jesse. He had flirted with her at first, but over the loud music he made her laugh all night long. She went home with that night, and when they ordered take out late in the night after sleeping together, Sydney knew she was smitten. After making plans to see him again, and then again, it didn’t take long before the two started dating. Jesse was a Boston native and had never thought of living outside the city of his birth.
For a while, Sydney had been happy to stay in Boston with Jesse. She worked herself up the museum chain, she introduced him to her crazy family and he wasn’t scared away, and she even got a condo. But soon Sydney started to miss home. It was almost seven years away from home and she did eventually want to settle back in East Haven. Start her own business, do something with her name for herself. But, Jesse didn’t want to leave Boston. He couldn’t imagine committing to this small town she loved so much, not when he felt they could have a better life here in Boston for a future family. After many tearful fights, it was finally the thing that broke them up. Sydney returned to East Haven not long after, feeling defeated and having to face her mother without the man she thought she was going to marry.Â
It was five years before she saw Jesse again. In that time, Sydney had gone back to doing what her mother wanted of her. She took got involved in the historical society, took up her spot with the DAR once more, and even started to learn the ropes so one day she could sit on the board for Heywood University. Sydney worked remotely for a publisher doing editor work for a little. She then moved on to work full time for the historical society museum. Eventually she started to lay the groundwork for starting her own business. The historical house on historical main street downtown had always called to her. The early 19th century house had some of the most stunning details Sydney had seen, even when it started to fall into disrepair. Eventually she bought it and put time and money into restoring it. The building was still in the early stages when she took a girl’s trip weekend to Boston for a friend’s bachelorette party.Â
It was while they were out celebrating her friend’s lucky match that she ran into the man she hadn’t been able to shake from her thoughts. Sydney tried dating back in East Haven but never was able to find someone who measured up to Jesse. The sparks flew once more between them as if no time had passed. In the past five years, he had tried to move on as well but wasn’t able to shake Sydney from his heart. She made plans to come back the next weekend to see him once more. It didn’t take long for the two to start dating again. He was the one who had given Sydney the idea to make the Garden a brewery and beer garden. Originally she had thought to transform the historic house into a bed and breakfast. They tried it long distance for a while, one of them making the trip to the other’s city every weekend or meeting somewhere in the middle for a little trip. It was during one trip up to the Hamptons that Jesse finally proposed to her with her family and friends surprising her. He had decided he didn’t want to live without her, and if East Have was where she wanted to be then he’d follow her to the far corners of the world. They owned the Garden together, and he wanted to build the rest of his life with her.
The preparations for their wedding took a year and finally three months ago they were married in a beautiful ceremony in East Haven with almost everyone in town invited. Sydney was absolutely blessed, she couldn’t be any happier and she felt secure in the long and loving life she would have with Jesse. Though she couldn’t have been more wrong. During the preparations, Jesse and Sydney had decided to combine their last names. They’d hyphenate their last names together. Though, the two had thought they had no rush to do so, and didn’t even start to get the paperwork until after they came back from their honeymoon. It was a move that Sydney would come to regret. Â
PRESENT
Three months after their wedding, Jesse died. He loved to swim and run and ski and enjoy all the outdoor activities the town had to offer that he hadn’t truly gotten to embrace in Boston. It was during a swim that he took often in the town lake that tragedy struck. It was an accident, a simply but tragic accident that resulted in Jesse drowning. There was nothing anyone could do, and when the paramedics pulled him from the water, they tried to save him to no avail, but he was already gone. Noah, Jesse’s friend from Boston had been the one to call her to the scene, and when Sydney arrived even her shrieks and cries couldn’t bring him back to life. Three months. That was all she had married to the love of her life before she had to place him in the ground. They had bought an 18th century house in Maple Hills they were working on renovating combining historical accuracy and modern design. But the house felt cruelly empty and just a reminder of the life she had planned with him. She soon bought a condo in the Prim Rows while still owning the house as she settled into being a widow. Only two months into her widowhood, Sydney still struggles each day. She is a shell, a ghost of her former self and the grief hangs over her like a heavy blanket. She isn’t sure when she’ll ever see the end of this tunnel, all she knows is how wrong this is. Jesse was never supposed to die this early, she wasn’t supposed to be left without him. It is all wrong.
