Below is some general information about her. These aren't details that I want to reveal directly but that I hope to weave into a story somehow... hmm...
CONTACT INFORMATION
Home address: 214 Pomegranate Ave.
Cell phone number: cell phone... what?
Email address: J_me@doodle.com
Doodle ID: J_me
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Birthday: December 17
Eye color: blue
Hair color: dark blonde
Other: glasses, contacts
Height: 5"1'
SCHOOL
School: Daniel Boone Middle School
English teacher: Ms. Kathy Boring
Art teacher: Mr. Michel D'Angelo
Principal: Dr. Harry Tudor
Most recent report card:
- B- Language Arts
- B+ Art Expressions
- C Pre-Algebra
- C+ Physical Science
- C Social Studies
FAVORITES
school subject: Art Class
color: purple
food: Peeps
class: Art class
animal: housecat
game: solitaire
websites: www.doodle.com; www.mypeople.com
room: attic
season: spring
hobby: photography journal
FAMILY
Jayme's parents are divorced. It happened about 2 years ago...
Donald McGhee decided to move to Beijing, China to work with America-China Helping Hands Learning Exchange, a student exchange program in which he is the liaison for American students coming to live in China for 6 month intervals. Likewise, there are Chinese liaisons in America working with the Chinese exchange students. Donald now lives in Beijing with his assistant, Anna Chang, a former college student of Donald's during his tenure at the local university.
Rather than uproot herself to support the intellectual (or personal) pursuits of her husband, Donna McGhee took her three children and moved into her grandmother's home both to take care of her aging grandmother and to provide a fresh start for herself and her children. Donna had suspected that her life would change soon, but she hadn't realized how drastic the changes would be. As Donald worked long hours as both a university professor and researcher in the multicultural studies department, she and Donald spent less and less time together.
She had been a stay at home mom, holding down the fort while her husband took care of their financial needs. As Donna and the girls spent more time together - without Donald - she began to realize that she wanted to be a good mother but also that she needed something else in her life. Something about her just wasn't quite right. What was she doing to show her girls what it means to be a strong, independent woman? What reason did they have to look up to her?
Donna's daughters, Courtney, Jayme, and Elizabeth, looked up to their mother in ways that she would never fully know.
Courtney, age 19, graduated from John Sevier High School and left 214 Pomegranate Ave. to attend a small, private university on the east coast. Living 5 hours away from home, Courtney had plenty of time to herself to live her own life and make her own decisions. She reminded herself frequently that she didn't miss her father, or his overzealous assistant for that matter. At first, she had been furious to discover that he was moving away with that woman. She never complained aloud, but she wondered why her mother didn't stand up for herself. Why did her mom let him ruin their lives? Why was she willing to give up our lives and our home just because he didn't want to be with us anymore? After living on her own for the past 3 months, she had come to realize that maybe her mother did take a stand, in her own way... Just like how Courtney was now taking her own stand...
Jayme thought she would never lose that empty feeling in her stomach that she felt after her father moved what felt like an entire world away from her. Then, when Courtney left, her stomach tied itself into a knot... or was that her heart? Are they one and the same? She missed her big sis and wondered if they would still have their pre-bedtime talks. After all, they shared a bedroom until the divvv... Oh, the divorce. It had changed her life in ways that she could never have imagined. After leaving her childhood school, home, friends... seemingly everything... Jayme had much difficulty adjusting to her new lifestyle. She didn't blame her mother for letting her father go or for moving to a different home. Although she didn't understand why her father left, she didn't blame him for going. After all, Jayme knew that life was hard. At age 13, she had trouble making decisions about, among many other dilemmas in her life, where to sit at lunch time, how to stir up the courage to ask for help in math class, and how to persuade her little sister to leave her alone. She convinced herself that, if she had to choose for herself whether to stay married to someone, or even to get married in the first place, she wouldn't know what to do.
Lizzie, age 10, was the youngest of the three sisters. Named after her grandmother, Elizabeth Marie, Lizzie was thrilled to move in with Granna when she was 8 years old. When her mother and father were "working through their differences," as her mother used to explain, Lizzie spent much of her time listening to Granna's stories and creating craft projects with her. Lizzie's favorite "Granna craft" was her popsicle stick bird house. She painted it bright blue and posted her popsicle stick dog and popsicle stick cat on the front porch to greet nesting bird families. Although she expended much of her childhood energy on "Granna crafts," Lizzie also spent quite a bit of her time following her sister, Jayme. After all, Jayme was always doing something interesting, or at least, if she wasn't doing something interesting, Lizzie could always find something to talk with her about. However, Jayme wasn't always fond of Lizzie's attention and often found ways to avoid her, but Lizzie didn't mind. She could always catch up with her later. In the mean time, Lizzie also found many opportunities to roam around Granna's land, earning her the title, "Lizzie the Explorer." She remembered the days when she and Jayme used to listen to their mother's bedtime stories, but over the years, bedtime rituals shifted. Jayme usually worked later on homework than Lizzie, but Lizzie didn't mind because gradually she had begun to weave elaborate tales of her daily outdoor adventures behind Granna's house. Now that Courtney and her father were gone, Lizzie often emailed her somewhat embellished stories to them so that they too could admire her adventures.
In her own way, Jayme also enjoyed Lizzie's stories, but somehow, she pictured herself in the background of them. While Lizzie was out exploring the great unknown, or the woods behind Granna's house, Jayme was often inside, sitting on the soft, velvet-covered window bench in the attic, watching Lizzie and sketching images, sometimes of Lizzie's fantastic discoveries, other times of seemingly mythical people or events that she encountered throughout her own day.
(More about Jayme McGhee coming soon...)
1 comment:
Thaanks for writing this
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