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Name | Nickname | Age: Grant Matthew Andersen | 35 Birthday | Astrology: July 30, 1986 | Leo sun, Taurus moon Pronouns | Sexual identity: He/him | Bisexual Birthplace | Raised: Boston, MA Residence: Brookland Occupation: Graphic Illustrator Faceclaim: Chris Evans
TRIGGER WARNINGS: child death tw, parent death tw, cancer tw, death tw, infidelity tw, adultery tw, divorce tw
TIMELINE:
July 1986- Grant Matthew Andersen is born to Sarah and John Andersen.
2001- He meets James Lane.
2004- Sarah is diagnosed with breast cancer. Grant starts college at SVA. Grant and James break up. James enlists in the US Army.
2007- Grant starts dating Anna McKay.
2010- Grant and Anna are married.
2014- Their daughter, May, is born.
2016- May is diagnosed with leukemia and dies later that same year.
2018- Grant and Anna divorce. He moves to D.C.
BIOGRAPHY:
The Andersens were solid upper-middle class Boston natives. There was love there but expectations too, and Grant never had trouble meeting most of them. He was good in school, good in sports (baseball and boxing his preferred activities, outside of drawing), and never had trouble making friends or keeping them. He was responsible and well-mannered with a low tolerance for bullies and an occasional streak of mischief.
Nobody meets their soulmate when they're fifteen years old, but no one could convince him of that. When his car stalled and James Lane stopped to help, it seemed like fate. Grant was good with people and bad with romance. As soon as he realized he found someone attractive, he got tongue-tied and awkward. Somehow, the message got through (or maybe James was just much better at flirting than he was), and he barely left his side after that. He'd never been in love like that, before or since. Grant planned to go to college; James wasn't sure, but they were going to figure it out together.
It was his first lesson in the fact that life didn't care at all about his plans. His mother was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly before graduation, and he wasn't able to defer his enrollment to the School of Visual Arts. She wouldn't hear of him not going, so he split his time between New York and Boston. She later went into remission and has been ever since. James's family had just relocated to Chicago, with James planning to join him later in New York, when his father died suddenly that same fall, leaving James home to look after his mother and sister. It was inevitable that they would crack under the pressure, two nineteen-year-old kids who were bad at communication and dealing with issues that would crush most adults.
It wasn't until James enlisted in the army that he realized it was really over though. (It had been over for months; he just couldn't admit it.) There was no chance of patching things up with an ocean between them. He was devastated, but Grant was the last person to let on when he was hurting. From the outside, it probably looked like everything was fine. Still, it took him over two years to start dating again and a few more before he proposed to his college girlfriend, Anna. He didn't tell her about James, at least not specifically, but she knew when they first started dating that there was someone he was holding on to. She only mentioned it once, years later, when they were both drinking and fighting. She told him to stop comparing her to the person in his head, the one he couldn't let go of, because she couldn't compete with a ghost. Neither of them ever touched the subject again.
They stayed in New York City while they both started their careers, his as an illustrator and hers as a lawyer. They put off starting a family for a few years while Anna opened her own law firm. When May was born, she became the center of his world. He loved being a dad, and they planned to have more kids after things had settled more with Anna's firm, which was finally gaining recognition with a few high-profile clients. May had just turned two when she was diagnosed with leukemia, and she died later that same year.
Their marriage died with her, but Grant was slow to realize it. Maybe he'd always had trouble recognizing the end when he saw it. This was a pain he couldn't hide, and neither of them knew how to deal with it. They both started drinking, and Anna worked longer and longer hours. He couldn't bring himself to pick up a pen again, so he quit drawing and helped out at the firm. The drinking eased over two years, but the rift between them stayed. They had friends over for a dinner party when he realized she was having an affair with their best friend, who had helped her start her law firm. It was nothing dramatic, just an observed moment in the kitchen when she smiled at Daniel. It had been years since she smiled at him like that. He probably should have felt betrayed, but his primary emotion was relief. Neither of them had to pretend anymore.
They took apart their life together with the same quiet efficiency with which they'd built it up. He was happy for them; he wanted Anna to be happy, but he wasn't self-punishing enough to stay and watch. Staying in New York seemed out of the question, going back to Boston equally so, so Grant decided to keep moving south and relocated to D.C. where there weren't any memories. It was close enough to commute when he had to once he started drawing again, and he spent the last couple years settling into an old job and a new city. He'd been alone by himself and he'd been alone with another person, and he knew which one he preferred. Somewhere in every story he illustrates, there's a tiny blonde fairy watching and laughing from the sidelines.
Grant written by Carrie.