Vanessa Lewis

NPC - Adoptable

Vitals

Name: Vanessa Lewis, née Hopkins

Nickname:

Age: 87

Birthday: November 11, 1920

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

Status: Widowed

Religion: Protestant

Chronic diseases/Other Illness: Alzheimer's Disease

Allergies:

Name Meaning

Vanessa:

Hopkins:

Lewis: 'Famous warrior'

Appearance

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Never Wears:

Personality

• Despite her illness, there are many things about Vanessa that haven’t changed much over the years.
• While prone to outbursts she is typically meek and reserved.
• She appears to be a simple and rather homely woman, but behind her gentle eyes there is a constant presence of fear.
• She desires to be taken care of by someone, but always believes that those can do so – namely the caretakers of her nursing home and anyone who she mistakenly thinks is her husband – are going to hurt her.
• Rather than put up a resistance she goes with it, thinking that that is the way life is.
• Her humble and gentle nature and seemingly genuine concern for others makes her rather loveable.
• Her illness controls her life entirely.
• While she has moments of complete dementia, where she doesn’t even know her own name, as well as those where she appears almost completely lucid – at least to the point where she recognizes a few people and is rather responsive – usually she lives her life lost in a maze of time, trapped in the period of her marriage.
• She is rather prone to wandering and has been known to slip out of the confines of the nursing home, only to be found later walking down a street talking to ghosts.

Personal History

• Born and raised in Pleasant Port.
• Middle child, ten siblings.
• Knew Nicholas Lewis through an elder brother.  Began dating him in school.
• When the war broke out, Nicholas enlisted and proposed. The two were married shortly before he was shipped off.
• Vanessa had her first daughter while Nicholas was at war.
• She depended on her parents and siblings to help support her.
• Two more children were born after the war.
• For a long time Nicholas struggled to find work.  Finally, because he couldn’t get work in Pleasant Port he re-enlisted during the Korean War.
• Vanessa struggled while he was gone, barely succeeding in keeping the family together.
• When Nicholas returned the boy she’d married had been replaced by a violent alcoholic.
• Vanessa succeeded in surviving only through the help of her family. She constantly made excuses for her husband’s behaviour and struggled to protect her children, although she often had to sacrifice her son in order to protect her daughters.
• Vanessa pushed both of her daughters into marriages, thinking that without them in the house Nicholas might calm down.
• This didn’t work, nor did it after Jeffrey moved out. Shortly before Nicholas’ death Vanessa moved in with a sister, unable to live with her husband any longer.  However, when Nicholas died she blamed herself for not being there to take care of him.  This separation is something that none of her children know about. She returned to the home that she had lived in with Nicholas after his death and refused to speak about the separation.
• In the early 80s she realized that she was unable to keep the house up as she had done before.  She downgraded to a small apartment and hired a maid to come throughout the week.
• Money was always rather tight, and she succeeded in surviving more through the goodwill of her siblings and children.  Jeffrey especially helped out, doing what he felt was his duty.
• It was the maid who first noticed the forgetfulness.  After about a year of little things happening – a fridge full of milk, Vanessa’s inability to find the front door, regular mistakes with people’s names, etc – the maid went to Jeffrey.  He took his mother to the doctor’s, where she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
• Initially Jeffrey did all he could to avoid directly having to deal with the illness.  A nurse was hired, as were babysitters, but over time it became too much of an expense for him.
• For a brief period Vanessa moved in with her son and his family, but Jeffrey quickly decided that it was too much of a burden an had her moved to the nursing home, where she has lived ever since.
• Vanessa’s mental health has declined steadily since her diagnosis, although since moving to the nursing home she appears to almost be happy. 

Through the Ages

Living Situation

Address: Pleasant Port Nursing Home

Facts

Family

Acquaintances

NPCs and Inactive Characters

Celebrity Used

Betty White