GRETA MITCHELL is 37 YEARS OLD, resides in HINSDALE and has lived in Lakeham for 37 YEARS. She is FEMALE and works as a FLORIST AND OWNER OF PERFECT PETALS. She is portrayed by BRIDGET REGAN and is played by MADI.
Trigger Warnings: Death, car accident, drink driving, depression, pregnancy.
For the first few weeks of Greta’s life, she was nameless. The baby in the newspaper dropped off at the local hospital. No parents, no family, she was placed into foster care within days of her birth. Her tiny face was plastered on the newspaper and the tv, but no family could be found. The assumption was made that her parents were probably high schoolers, irresponsible and underprepared for the realities of raising an infant. Maybe the media was right, but that didn’t really matter. She was placed with the Cooper family. The young and happy couple already had a young son and were hoping to expand their family. It was there that Greta found her name, her family, and her home. She wasn’t yet two when the adoption papers were officially signed.
Growing up, Greta had no idea of the chaos surrounding her birth. Eventually she began to question why no one else in her family had red hair, but it didn’t seem important. She loved her mom and dad. They were the most important people in her life; but they told her about her adoption when she was seven. At that point they felt she was old enough to handle it. Deep down, she was, but Greta felt very lost at the beginning. She didn’t understand why her birth parents would have given her up. As a child, she felt resentment towards them. Was she not good enough? Did they not love her? She was happy with her parents and her big brother. She didn’t want to be anywhere else, but those feelings never really went away. They were answers to questions she didn’t know who to ask.
Perhaps it was a subconscious urge to prove she was good enough, but Greta worked hard. She moved into high school with good grades and a passion for the more artsy endeavors she took. Photography came naturally to her. She was gifted a camera for her thirteenth birthday and from that moment on she took to documenting her life. Pictures arranged in collages, ticket stubs reminding her of dates, pressed flowers from prom holding the memory of that night tacked on to the scrapbook page. All of it was important. While she didn’t know where she had come from, Greta knew where she had been and who she had become. That was important to her to memorialize. After all, maybe someday she would find her birth family and they’d want to know her. She could show them she was worth it. She could make them see she accomplished it all.
After high school graduation, Greta left Lakeham for college. Admittedly, Greta didn’t know what she wanted to do. Photography had always been a passion, but she felt that was more for herself than something to make a career out of. She always loved working in her mother’s garden but what was there to do with that? Ever the practical girl, Greta majored in business and minored in art with a photography focus. However, the longer she spent in school the more she found herself thinking about other ways for her to exercise her creativity without using something that was personal for her. It was during that time where Greta got hired at a florist part time while she was working on her degree. While there, something finally clicked. Her love of art, gardening, and self-expression finally clicked. It felt right and she couldn’t have been happier to know she finally found what she wanted to do.
It was during that time when she met Bryan Mitchell. They met when he was the TA for her general education biology class. Working with him on improving her grade lead to coffee and study sessions. He asked her out the day she took the final exam. Greta was over the moon excited. For months they’d been flirting, she thought there was something there, but it only took a few dates for her to realize it was real. He was entering med school and she was still in undergrad, but they made it work. By the time she was finished with her bachelor’s degree, he was moving into his residency. It was then that Bryan proposed. They were young and perhaps a little foolish, but it didn’t matter. They were in love.
The decision was made early on that they wouldn’t get married right away. At least not until he was closer to finishing his residency and had more time for them to make a marriage work. She didn’t have a problem with that. In fact, Greta was glad. It gave her time to figure out how to achieve her goal. During college she decided she wanted to open a flower shop of her own. That was what she wanted to do, so she worked hard during those few years to save up both for the wedding and for a down payment on a business loan.
Three years into their engagement, Greta and Bryan got married. He still had two years left on his residency, but they were able to make it work, so when Bryan officially finished his residency they moved their life back to Lakeham. It was where Greta had always wanted to return to. At heart she was a small town girl and nothing about her time in the city would change that. Once there, Bryan got a job at the hospital and Greta finally got financing for her business. Six months later, Perfect Petals opened for business. There were concerns about a small town like Lakeham and the success of a florist, but Greta was Lakeham born and raised. The community was thrilled to see her trying to make it. While things were slow at first, Greta knew she would be okay. Finally she was living her dream.
For awhile work took priority. Greta was busy establishing her business and Bryan was trying to make his place at the hospital. Their family life took a backseat. At least for a while. When the day came that Greta realized she was pregnant, their whole world changed. They’d always talked about kids and kept putting it off knowing they wanted to be in a stable place before starting their family, but when it happened they wouldn’t have changed it for anything in the world. They’d been together a decade and it felt right. Everything seemed to be going their way. They were wrong.
Greta was five months pregnant when she woke to the sound of someone knocking on her door at three in the morning. Her first thought was that Bryan forgot his house key at the hospital, but nothing would prepare her for when she opened the door. What happened next was a blur that Greta refuses to remember. The police officers offering their condolences, asking her questions, explaining what had happened. A drunk driver ran a red light while her husband was driving home after a shift at the hospital. In one second, her world lost its color.
Were it not for her baby, Greta may have given up completely. She struggled a lot in the next few months. She was thirty-two and a widow. That just….wasn’t the life she expected. Who ever would? But her baby, that precious little baby, was a piece of Bryan she could have always. She would do anything to keep it safe. So, four months later when she went into labor, Greta did everything in her power to be strong. He should have been there for all of it. He should have been holding her hand and cutting the cord, but Greta couldn’t dwell. She had to push forward for her child’s sake. That’s what she did.
Were it not for her baby, Greta may have given up completely. She struggled a lot in the next few months. She was thirty-two and a widow. That just….wasn’t the life she expected. Who ever would? But her baby, that precious little baby, was a piece of Bryan she could have always. She would do anything to keep it safe. So, four months later when she went into labor, Greta did everything in her power to be strong. He should have been there for all of it. He should have been holding her hand and cutting the cord, but Greta couldn’t dwell. She had to push forward for her child’s sake. That’s what she did.
❝ PEOPLE SAY YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU HAD UNTIL IT'S GONE, BUT THE TRUTH IS YOU KNEW WHAT YOU HAD AND THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER LOSE IT.❞
Now, five years after the death of her husband and birth of her daughter, Greta has done her best to move on. Still running Perfect Petals, Greta has found the balance between business owner and single mother. Now that Quinn is beginning preschool things are easier. Being a mom to a four-year-old is a full-time job and there is absolutely no denying that, but she refuses to give up on the dreams she had before. The universe might have had different plans for her, but Greta would never let that stop her. Always pushing forward, she is ready to find her place in the world once more.
Dwelling on the past is no good for anyone. Despite clinging desperately to the memory of Bryan, Greta knows she can’t do that forever. At some point she has to be ready to move on. The stories of their life together and the scrapbooks she’d made could keep him alive for Quinn, but she must keep living her life. Living in the past won’t help her. Neither will living her life only for Quinn. She has her work, her daughter, her family, and her friends. Little by little the color is returning to her life. Greta knows deep down she must keep pushing forward. Grieving forever isn’t healthy, and she knows it’s not what Bryan would have wanted. Life may be a balancing act, but it’s a challenge she’s finally ready to embrace. Greta has been on the sidelines for far too long, merely allowing life to pass her by. It’s time for things to change.
While no longer wearing her wedding ring on her finger, she has moved to wearing it on a chain around her neck. Greta is ready to move on, but not quite able to let go of what she had.
Greta sees a therapist once a week to deal with her grief and everything else happening in her life. It helps her to talk out everything she is feeling in a safe space where she has no one to be strong for.
Despite spending all her time at work surrounded by flowers, Greta still maintains a garden at her home. There she grows some flowers, but also some fruits and vegetables for her own personal use.
(+) Determined, compassionate, protective.
(-) Overwhelmed, timid, insecure.
