we won't sleep 'til the lights burn out.

STATS:

full name: gwendolyn catherine cromwell birthdate: july 24th, 1998 age: 27 gender & pronouns: demiwoman & she/they height: 5’1” occupation: hostess at pearl’s seafood bistro

BIO:

growing up the middle child was never an easy feat, but it was the hand that wendy was dealt

with two older siblings and two younger ones, she fell smack dab in the middle, and somehow along the way she started blending in with the background

all of the cromwell kids always seemed to need something: a ride to an after school activity, a doctor’s appointment, a playdate across town that took precedence over everything else

their parents did their absolute best to tend to all of their children, but being outnumbered came with its own set of challenges

wendy could see them struggling around every turn, watching her father go to work early and come home impossibly late just to put some groceries in the fridge and make sure the lights were kept on, and it broke her heart every single day

and so she did her best not to need anything, happily accepting hand me downs from her older siblings and offering to help care for her younger siblings to give her poor mother a break every now and again

by the time she was thirteen, wendy was almost too independent, acting as a second mother to her siblings and tending to their needs to matter where they fell on the age scale

while she had no problem stepping up to help, wendy’s own needs were going unmet as a result, and even she wasn’t aware of it

she was always happily blending in with the background, tucking herself away until she was needed somewhere

it was something she had just gotten used to, and while wendy knew that her family loved her and cared about her, putting herself last still just seemed like the best option

but then her dad got sick, and everything in the cromwell household changed

her parents were home less, always off to a doctor’s appointment or some treatment center miles away, leaving the kids behind so they didn’t have to see what their dad was going through

of course the distance never helped, and wendy and her siblings would often huddle together, none of them wanting to be alone when they needed comfort the most

suddenly she felt like she was actually being seen, like she was actually being taken care of and worried after rather than being the one to do the worrying

wendy wasn’t invisible anymore, and the cromwell family was the closest they had ever been

it was like this for a few years, with frequent hospital visits to see their dad, always carpooling together and making the most out of each trip that they could

but they were getting older, most of them already in their adult lives, and wendy could feel her siblings slipping away from her again

and when their dad died, that’s when things really fell apart

wendy was twenty-two at the time, freshly graduated from college and eager to start a life where things didn’t feel so heavy all of the time

her grief was immeasurable, and any time she went to visit her mother or siblings, she was met with the harsh reality that their family was broken

and so wendy did the only thing they could think to do: they packed all of their stuff into just a few bags, and they moved to palmview grove, florida

putting distance between themselves and their family cleared their head almost instantly; nobody in palmview knew them, and they felt like they could finally get the opportunity to be seen

they got a job at pearl’s seafood bistro, greeting every customer with a bright smile and always stopping to make conversations with them so they felt welcome and comfortable

all wendy ever wanted was to help people and be a friendly face, and being in palmview gave her the opportunity to do that without being overshadowed by grief

of course, they never cut ties with their family; despite how divided everyone seemed, they still made sure to video chat at least once a week, never wanting to miss out on anything in each other’s lives

their family would always be the most important people in their life, but they knew that they needed the distance from them

it’s been five years, and wendy has happily settled into florida living

they can always be found at the beach, tucked up on a towel with a good book and a smile on their face

they have an incredibly friendly disposition, always ready to befriend anyone within a five foot radius of them; sometimes it works in their favor, and sometimes they get griped at, but it never stops them from trying anyway

keeping herself busy is wendy’s specialty; she is very rarely at her apartment, and when she is, she always finds something to do

staying stagnant would be her ultimate downfall, so she does her best to ignore it