name: Sydney Heywood age & birthday: 33, October 20th, 1990 sign: Libra gender & pronouns: Cis woman, She/Her sexuality: heterosexual place of birth & time in New Bellevoux: Born and raised in New Bellevoux, left in August 2009 for 11 years for college and work, has been back since May 2020 neighborhood: Grand Marquis occupation: Owner of The Garden faceclaim: Rebecca Rittenhouse family: UTP Heywood, UTP Heywood (brothers), UTP Heywood and UTP Heywood (parents)
CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY TWs: death
PAST
Being born a Heywood comes with a large amount of responsibility. Even being born second in line 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 and to make it 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 Louisiana. Sydney was born into this proud, and often times egotistical family and had the expectations set upon her shoulders from birth.
Sydney was expected to follow after her formidable mother as the only daughter of the family. 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?
Through the many classes, charities, being presented into society at her Cotillion, Sydney often stayed the warm light in the room. She did what was expected, but stayed true to herself and never compromised her morals.
Sydney never really put much weight into the feud between her family and the Ashburns. Sure, her parents despised the other family, but Sydney couldn't understand why. If the other family truly had murdered her however many times great grandfather, no one alive had anything to do with it. The feud should have died with that generation. She treats the other family as politely as she can, if she has any issues with members of the Ashburns it is due to personality only. Though she wouldn't say she considers any of them friends, she would not be opposed to it if it wasn't for the wrath she'd face from her parents.
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.
When it came time to go to school, she choose Rice University in Houston and decided to double major in history and business. Sydney loved Houston 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 Houston. 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 from New Orleans and was happy to get out of Louisiana.
For a while, Sydney had been happy to stay in Houston 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 with him. But soon Sydney started to miss home. It was almost eleven years away from home and she did eventually want to settle back in New Bellevoux. Start her own business, do something with her name for herself. But, Jesse didn’t want to leave Texas. 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 Houston for a future family. After many tearful fights, it was finally the thing that broke them up. Sydney returned to New Bellevoux not long after, feeling defeated and having to face her mother without the man she thought she was going to marry.
It was two 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 charities 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 Houston for a friend’s bachelorette party.
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 New Bellevoux 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 two 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, but the idea of a brewery appealed to her. 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 New Bellevoux 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 in March 2024 they were married in a beautiful ceremony in New Bellevoux with almost everyone in town invited. It was the big society wedding her mother had always wanted. A true town event. 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 in order until after they came back from their honeymoon. It was a move that Sydney would come to regret.
PRESENT
One month after their wedding in April 2024, Jesse died. He loved to swim and run and hike and boat and enjoy all the outdoor activities the town had to offer. 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. When Sydney arrived even her shrieks and cries couldn’t bring him back to life. One month. 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 Grand Marquis 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 Gable Creek 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.
