“For the glory we sing our broken, take a side and I’ll take the other one.”
Noah GRAVES is thirty-five years old. He/him is employed as a sous chef at Sullivan’s restaurant.
Noah grew up in California surrounded by love and comfort. His parents were two of the greatest people he’d ever met and their relationship served as a glowing example for what true love and partnership should look like. Being the middle child of three, Noah was able to get by unnoticed from time to time and he took full advantage of that freedom whenever he could. He had a tendency to get bored easily with whatever he was doing, even as a small child. Since his parents never scolded him for his toddler art projects on the walls of their bathroom, he felt like he had the freedom to explore new things whenever he wanted. They always encouraged him to learn whatever he could, whatever he was interested in, and to follow his dreams no matter how big or small they were.
He was a free spirit, perfectly at home in California, throughout his adolescence. Nothing in his life had ever gone wrong before which was why his father’s death shook him to the core. His father was his role model, he was the man who taught Noah what being a man even meant; how to act and treat others, how to build things for himself, how to fix cars, whatever he knew he knew because of his father. Losing him rocked his world in a way he couldn’t get past for a long time. It was senseless – a drunk driving accident – and it wasn’t fair. The one thing he was able to channel from that tragedy was his drive to become an EMT. He was positive that if he was trained and experienced, he could save some other sixteen year old kid from having to know the same pain, the same loss, as he’d learned at that age.
By the time he graduated the EMT program he was antsy and ready for a change. For whatever reason Texas seemed to be calling his name so he packed up and moved South where he quickly found a job and, soon after, the love of his life. She was beautiful and kind and thoughtful and generous; her list of good qualities was never ending. He fell for her fast and hard. They were only eighteen when they met but their bond only grew with time. They were twenty-one when they got married an it was truly the happiest day of his life up until the birth of their son two years after. Noah couldn’t be happier with his life and he knew he was making his father proud because he was being the kind of man he’d taught him to be. He even gave up his EMT career in favor of joining the police force so he could have a more stable schedule that allowed him more time with them.
After he graduated from the police academy he and his family picked up and moved to New Jersey so they could be closer to his wife’s family because her grandmother was having some health issues. They enjoyed five years of bliss, even through the brutal winters, and Noah was sure he’d be happy for the rest of his life here. It wasn’t until his precinct received the call to the scene of a crime and one of his fellow officers called him directly from the scene telling him he had to get down there– not because they needed his help with the scene, but because they needed him to positively identify the bodies of his wife and son. It was a snowy night in March and a car driving too fast hit a patch of black ice and lost control. The two people he loved most in the world were killed on impact and suddenly Noah had no sense of direction anymore.
He tried for almost a year to find a groove again but everything in New Jersey reminded him of his wife and son. He needed a fresh start and there was no better way that completely disappearing to some small town he randomly selected on the map. Serenity, Georgia. He’d never heard of it before which was perfect because no one would think to look for him there. He had to find a way to pay the bills but he couldn’t bring himself to get involved in law enforcement or first responder positions anymore. He took a job as a busser in one of the town diners and somehow worked his way up to a prepping station in the kitchen under Lily Loe Sullivan.
It surprised Noah how much he took to working in the kitchen. He’d never considered himself much of a cook beyond the 2-3 old family recipes he knew how to make perfectly. Some of his memories of working in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother started to come back to him and, with Lily Loe’s blessing, he began to mess around with ingredients here and there. His creativity and seemingly natural instinct for flavors marked him as the one to watch in the kitchen and before long, Lily Loe promoted him to her sous chef. They slowly became good friends beyond the conversations they’d have behind the line. Although he was still grieving the loss of his wife and son (and probably always would be on some level), life seemed to be evening out for Noah once again in the most unexpected way.
The Role of Noah GRAVES is played by Charles Michael Davis and is currently OPEN and this FC is nonnegotiable.
