[cis woman, she/her] Welcome to Aurora Bay, [CAROLINE KELLY]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [BRITTANY O'GRADY]. You must be the [TWENTY-SIX] year old [HOST AT WHEN IN ROME]. Word is you’re [OPTIMISTIC] but can also be a bit [STUBBORN] and your favorite song is [STRANGERS BY ETHEL CAIN]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [FISHER'S COVE]. I’m sure you’ll love it!
tw: parental death, tw: abandonment
Since childhood, Caroline's life always had curveballs thrown into it. Born to Antonia Kelly, a single mother on a hot, New Orleans night, Caroline was born two weeks early right on the living room floor, her birth so sudden that her grandmother Delphine barely had time to lay out towels and blankets and call an ambulance before there were newborn wails piercing the still night air.
Her father was never in the picture, and Caroline never got the full story. Some days she heard stories that he got cold feet and ran off, others that she was the result of a one night stand to a married man. Others even joked and said she was a product of voodoo, that her mother and grandmother wanted the Kelly family line to continue. Either way, the Kelly women all lived together in a quaint little home on the outskirts of town, Caroline's grandmother and mother letting her live freely and her days often being spent by the water, scabby knees and muddied clothes always faintly smelling of incense marking much of her childhood. It wasn't until she was twelve that she realized life wasn't as easy as they'd made it out to be.
New Orleans was known for wild parties and lots of alcohol, which meant lots of idiotic people doing idiotic things. Her mother was killed tragically in a hit and run, a drunk driver blowing through a red light when Antonia was walking home from work, killing her instantly- an instant that changed Caroline's life forever. It took a while after that for things to be 'normal' again in the house, Caroline retreating into herself somewhat, but over time (and with lots of love and patience from her grandmother) Caroline overcame her grief, finding solace in music.
Music had always been a big thing in their house, Duke Ellington, Etta James, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis records almost always playing in the corner, and Caroline realized that writing things down helped, and soon, just writing down her feelings turned into writing down lyrics, her thoughts and emotions finding a much-needed outlet. She was fourteen when her grandmother gifted her a thrifted guitar and by sixteen Caroline was playing little gigs in bars she was too young to be in, crooning in little hole in the wall restaurants and busking on street corners instead of wasting her time doing homework, singing a mix of the classics and her own songs and loving every second of it.
As the years went on though and her grandmother Delphine got older, Caroline knew she needed to contribute more than just the tips she was making from singing, and she wasn't at all interested in high education, so once she was eighteen and done with high school, Caroline started working more full-time jobs anywhere she could- waitressing, bartending, pulling pizza slices out a hot oven, she did anything and everything she could so her grandmother didn't have to, just wanting to now take care of the woman who'd always taken care of her.
Things stayed like that into her twenties, with Caroline finding a balance and working all day before singing at night, both jobs bringing in enough money to keep them comfortable at home, and while Caroline dated over the years, nothing really stuck. Not until Dean anyways. She met him one night at a bar, heavily flirting but thinking nothing more would come from it except maybe a fun hookup--and while that did come from it, more did as well and what started as just sex soon turned into a real thing and Caroline fell hard. Suddenly all her songs were about him, everything was about him. They were dating for months when Caroline's life again got upheaved and she realized she was pregnant. But...she'd be fine. Because she had her grandmother and she had Dean--Dean who said he loved her and wanted a life with her. That is, until the daydreams all became a reality and history seemed to repeat itself, leaving Caroline pregnant and alone, just like her mother. And just like with her mother, Delphine stepped in and promised to help her with her pregnancy and with the baby and months later on a similar hot Louisiana night, Jordan Antoine Kelly was born.
Caroline didn't expect to become a mother so young, but then, nothing in her life really went to plan. She started singing even less, knowing she needed a guaranteed income since she now had three mouths to feed and her grandmother really only made money by creating protection charms and amulets and supplying herbs to botanica shops in town. It wasn't always easy, but they made things work, and by the time of Jordan's first birthday, they'd gotten a good enough routine down that Caroline could get back to performing.
So of course with her life settled again, the universe decided to throw in another curveball.
Delphine was old, and had lived a long life full of helping others and loving her family. She'd raised her daughter, and then raised Caroline, and was helping to raise Jordan, but it was finally time for her to rest and she passed away in her sleep one night in late September, the smell of rosewater and incense not even lit tickling Caroline's nostrils and shocking her awake--at least, that's what she chose to believe- the scent that marked her life wafting over her one more time in a pseudo-goodbye from the woman who'd been her cornerstone.
With her grandmother gone, Caroline was at a crossroads; she could stay in New Orleans, raise her son by the bayous that she grew up on, continue to work the same dead-end jobs and continue living her slow life here. Or, she could finally have a change. Her grandmother always wanted her to make more for herself, to get out and see more than what the town had to offer.
She remembered a chance encounter from months back on one of her performing nights, ending up speaking with a man for hours and practically pouring her heart out to this stranger as effortlessly as they poured whiskey. She remembered he spoke of a little beach town on the west coast. California seemed like a pipe dream, but now, well....there was nothing stopping her. So she sold her childhood home, making sure to keep every single prized possession of her grandmother's (and her mother's) and with a packed up moving truck and her now two year old son on her hip, Caroline went west, hoping that she'd find a life there that she could never quite get in Louisiana.
@aurorabayaesthetic
extras:
full name: caroline delphine kelly
birthday: august 22, 1999 (jordan's birthday is july 18, 2022)
height: 5'5
nicknames: care, carrie, lin, linny
fluent in creole and cajun english
moved to aurora bay in november 2024
connections:
@keolalagaaia - man she met one night after a gig. they spoke all night and his mentioning aurora bay being a good place stuck with her/is one of the reasons she chose to move here
@noah-atwood - neighbor in fisher's cove
