"Okay, how does this look? Please be brutally honest with me. I swear I can take it," Kate asked, coming out of the dressing room and looking in the mirror, turning this way and that to see all sides of it. "I have this whole fancy awards dinner thing I have to go to and I'm absolutely terrified."
"Come see our winter production," Kate stated, handing out flyers as she walked through the fair. It was a great place to hand out flyers as well as talk up businesses to donate time, money or supplies for their productions. "We can always use more volunteers or actors. Lots of positions open if you want to help out your community," she suggested, smiling as she passed more out. "Not a lot of people seem interested, but that's not going to stop me."
CALLY, 31, CST; SHE/HER. | if you’re hearing SOON YOU’LL GET BETTER BY TAYLOR SWIFT playing, you have to know KATE TJONG (SHE/HER; FEMALE) is near by! the 40 year old ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER has been in denver for, like, HER ENTIRE LIFE. they’re known to be quite SELF-LOATHING, but being NURTURING seems to balance that out. or maybe it’s the fact that they resemble KRISTIN KREUK. personally, i’d love to know more about them seeing as how they’ve got those KIDS FLOCKING TO THEM, MOTHERLY VIBES, AND COVERING PAIN WITH A SMILE AND ENDLESS WORK vibes. and maybe i’ll get my chance if i hang out around the MONTBELLO DISTRICT long enough!
Trigger Warning for teen pregnancy, cancer, pediatric cancer, child death, depression, grief, & suicide
Basic Info
Full Name: Katherine Grace Tjong
Nicknames: Kate, Katie
Age: 40
Birthday: June 30th, 1983
Zodiac: Cancer
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher (5th Grade)
Schooling: University of Denver
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Ethnicity: Dutch, Chinese-Indonesian, Chinese-Jamaican
Languages Spoken: English, some Indonesian
Gender: Cisfemale
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Relationship Status: Single
Living in: Montbello District
Family Info
Maternal Grandparents: Hendri and Amoy Subagyo (nee Fong) met in Indonesia as children. They grew up together and got married very young. Hendri and Amoy moved to America with the help of Hendri’s brother, Badri, who had already immigrated there. Badri got Hendri a job in a construction company and Amoy began working as a seamstress before having their daughter, Alice Subagyo. Hendri died at the age of 46 from a heart attack and Amoy moved back to Indonesia eight years ago.
Paternal Grandparents: Silas and Grace Tjong (nee Peris) met after Grace’s family moved to Boulder, Colorado when she was in high school. Silas and Grace bonded over a shared history of being Chinese-Indonesian with both speaking Indonesian. They were married after college and had three children together. They still live in Boulder, though they often travel the world.
Parents: Paul and Alice Tjong (nee Subagyo) met at the University of Denver, where Paul was a teaching assistant and Alice was in her third year. They got married only a year later after Alice fell pregnant, though their marriage didn’t last. When their daughter was only nine, they divorced. Paul remarried four years later and is still with his current wife, whom he retired to Florida with after being a high school history teacher for many years. Alice remarried several times and had many different jobs. She lives in Colorado Springs, but often visits her daughter in Denver.
Siblings: Kate has three stepsiblings through her father’s remarriage, though they are not very close as they were nearly adults when their mother married her father.
Son: Eric James Tjong, who died at the age of eight years old from cancer
Pets: None
Physical Info
Hair color: Dark Brown
Eye color: Hazel
Height: 5’4”
Tattoos: None
Piercings: One in earlobes
Character Inspo: Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games), Olivia Benson (Law & Order SVU), Haley James Scott (One Tree Hill), Ella Montgomery (Pretty Little Liars), Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time), Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time), Bobby Nash (911), Melissa McCall (Teen Wolf), Mia Jones (Degrassi), Elena Gilbert (The Vampire Diaries), Mustang (Red Rising), Elain Archeron (ACOTAR), Cami O’Connell (The Originals), Tessa Gray (The Infernal Devices)
Background
Kate was born in Denver, Colorado during the happier times of her parent’s marriage. Though those happy times did not last very long. She didn’t know a time when her parents weren’t fighting with each other, but they doted on her often. It was honestly a bit of a relief when they divorced. Kate stayed with her mom, but often visited her father. Their home was in the Lakeridge District. Her mother didn’t finish college after she fell pregnant and had a variety of odd jobs over the years. From a waitress to a substitute teacher to a daycare worker. Alice got married several times, but again, these often didn’t last. Alice seemed to want a better life than they could give her, one she felt she couldn’t achieve on her own.
While her mother’s life was a bit more chaotic, her father’s life was much calmer. He settled down with an older woman who already had kids mostly grown. They lived a quiet, happy life and are still together. They were never very rich, but Kate never felt like she was lacking for anything. Both sides of her family connected her to her Chinese-Indonesian culture, especially her mom given her status as a first generation American in her family. Her grandparents being close by helped as well and she appreciates where she comes from, though she does not speak much Indonesian. However she does often cook foods she learned from her family.
Growing up, Kate was one of those people everyone liked. Her kind nature and genuine attitude towards people drew them to her. Ask around people she graduated with and they would say she was always nice. Most didn’t know her that well, but they at least had a kind word to say about her. She was encouraged by friends to join the cheerleading team freshman year, which is how she met her first love. He was on the football team, though he was often on the bench those first few years. But during the first game when she was cheering and he was sitting on the bench, they chatted a bit and they ended up agreeing to a first date. From there, they were inseparable.
TW: Teen Pregnancy
They were the It Couple, the ones everyone talked about being together forever. You often didn’t see one without the other. As they got older, he became a football star and soon they were the ones winning homecoming king and queen, prom king and queen, all the things. They had all their firsts together and talked often about the future together. But reality quickly shifted when Kate fell pregnant just before graduation. She was terrified and wasn’t sure what to do, as well as being afraid of her family’s reaction and his. At first when she told her boyfriend, he was freaked out, but agreed to be there for her. They tried to tell their families together, but his family had always disapproved of her. They had never really accepted her and had hoped for better things for their son. He had gotten a major scholarship for football to a school out of state and wanted him to go there. They wanted Kate to get rid of the baby. Due to pressure from his family and them getting in his head, he told Kate he wasn’t ready to be a father, that he needed to go away to college and pursue his dreams. It broke her heart and they ended things.
He left and never came back, while Kate changed her plans, living with her mother and attending the University of Denver. While her mother wasn’t happy about her pregnancy, she still supported her daughter. She managed to attend some summer classes and most of the first semester so that she could take off the second semester and take care of her child. Her son was born in December and from the moment she laid eyes on him, Eric was everything to her. Since his father wanted nothing to do with him and neither did his paternal grandparents, she never told them about the baby or anything. Occasionally she saw them around town, but they never once asked about their grandchild. Kate’s parents were a huge help when it came to raising her son. They would take turns watching him while she attended university and worked. Her grandparents often came to help with him as well. And while it took a bit longer than normal, she managed to graduate university and become a teacher.
She loved children and was always good with them, so being a teacher had been her plan for years, especially thanks to her father’s influence with his own teaching career. She began teaching the first grade and absolutely loved it. Outside of her work, she fully devoted herself to her son. He was her entire life. She didn’t really date or even attempt to do anything without him. And while they struggled, they were happy together. Until Eric turned six years old and became very sick. He began having trouble eating, growing thinner and thinner, and unable to keep food down. At first, Kate thought it might be some sort of stomach bug, an ulcer, anything other than what it turned out to be.
TW: cancer, pediatric cancer, child death
After many doctor’s visits, Eric was diagnosed with pancreatoblastoma, a rare pancreatic cancer. He had tumors in his pancreas that had been growing for quite some time slowly. They began treatment quickly, starting with surgery in attempts to remove the tumors. During surgery, they found they were unable to remove some of the tumor, so he began chemotherapy. It was a long battle for two years with many ups and downs, but eventually, Eric just became too weak and the cancer too strong. He passed away at the age of eight, devastating his mother. It broke Kate to lose her son, the most important person to her. It was like she lost her entire life when he was gone.
TW: depression, suicide, grief
She fell into a deep depression after her son died, all of it crashing down on her. She took a sabbatical from work and was barely able to leave her bed or home for almost a year. Her friends and family were worried for her, especially after one found her ready to end her life to be with her son. They encouraged her to attend grief counseling and she did. It took a long time for her to get to a place where she could get out of bed, that she could be a normal person again. The pain was with her always, but she could manage it. She came back to teaching eventually, her coworkers welcoming her with open arms. At first it was hard being around the kids, realizing her own son would never reach their age, would never grow older.
Over the years, she has managed to put herself back together. She is a great teacher and still has kids coming up to her to this day, saying she was their favorite teacher. In her social life, she very much keeps to herself, still never having really been with or dated anyone since her first love. She attempted a few dates, but they never worked out.
Personality:
Kate is a very kind and empathetic person. However, she is also very shy and quiet at times. People would describe her as the girl-next-door, the one everyone likes and gets along with. After everything happened with her ex, she became more independent, more hard working to provide for her son. Once he passed away, she became even more reserved, keeping to herself more often. In recent years, she has thrown herself into all sorts of things to avoid feeling lonely and depressed. She volunteers at the theater, doing all sorts of odd jobs for Felipe, including using her old piano skills whenever needed. She is always coming up with fun things for her class, trying out new hobbies, and participating in every sort of city event she possibly could. During the summers when she isn’t teaching, she often even volunteers with the daycare center or library with children’s programs.
Kate knew Logan probably wouldn't like her showing up like this. But she hadn't seen or heard from her in a bit and she worried. Despite the differences in their situations, she understood what loss like that did to someone. So she had made it her mission to help make sure Logan made it through. Even years later, she wanted to make sure she was okay. "C'mon Logan. You know I'm not going to go away until you open up. I brought lumpia. The kind I've made you before."
She was going through the piece again, her fingers flying over the keyboard keys. She was in the zone and focused. But then the notes turned sour, sounding awful as she hit the wrong key. Kate groaned, her hands falling from the keyboard as she looked at Ruriko. "I keep getting stuck at the same spot. I've tried going straight through the entire thing over and over. I've tried just practicing this part, but every time I play it through, it's like my hands forget where to go at this point," she explained to her friend. "Any advice?"
I know my last letter wasn't very long, but hopefully this one will make up for that. Things have been... Well, the same as always. And sort of not at the same time. I've been helping get everything ready for our next production at the Polymina, dealing with my class, and everything else I sign up to help with. Busy all the time, I know.
I finally ran into William. I mentioned him before, though I have tried not to very much. He is Eric's father and my ex. I remember back when he first moved back here I wrote probably way too much about him to you. I still apologize for all that ranting I did. But I couldn't escape him this time. I got away as quick as I could, but now I feel like I see him everywhere and it's harder to avoid him. Before you ask, no. I still haven't told him what happened.
I went to the dinner for the awards ceremony. Despite how anxious I was about everything, I managed to get through the photos and speech. I only threw up once. Are you proud? I'm thankful that my fellow teachers and even some parents thought I deserved the Teacher of the Year award, but I just hated being the center of attention like that.
I had the dream again. The not-quite-nightmare. Everything was so perfect. Eric was eighteen this time, graduating high school. He was even valedictorian. We were all celebrating him and it felt so real. It hurt so much when I woke up and realized it was a dream. I had to force myself to get out of bed, to do anything. Are your dreams like that? The ones that aren't nightmares, at least.
I hope you're doing well right now. I'm always here to listen. Or read, I suppose in our case. Gotta keep our promise for full honesty, no matter how hard it is. Write back when you can.
After running into him once, it was like she could find Will everywhere now. She'd spent the last decade and longer avoiding him and now he was everywhere. And now she had run into him in a situation where she couldn't run. She was moving some stuff to the theatre and taking a few things home to fix, so she was moving heavy boxes to her trunk when she saw him. "Good morning," she said, trying to be polite. "I'm a bit busy so I don't really have time to talk."
