the grown-up family of Meadow (Thayer) Lind

October, 2074, Brady is 61, Meadow is 60, pet dog is Fifi.

Little Meadow Thayer is all grown-up now, and turning 60 this week. Meadow met Brady Lind her senior year in college, and they’ve been married 31 years now. Brady is a funds manager (investment career) for a local brokerage firm, and Meadow is the principal at Lakeside Heights Public High School and owns a little flower shop called Petals that she opens up on the weekends. They got a great price for the house where the kids grew up and moved into a spacious condo. Aurora and Nathan are both out of college now and doing so well.

Aurora is their oldest, and was married just last month to on-again-off-again (on-again-for-good?) love of her life, Joel Harris. They bought a house in the northern suburbs of Lake City, and oddly enough, now that she’s living farther away, she calls home often and she and Meadow are getting along better than they ever have.

Nathan, their youngest, apple of his mother’s eye, graduated at the top of his class, and was immediately placed in one of the city’s top law firms. He bought a gorgeous little home just around the corner, and being that his girlfriend is still a junior at LCU, he comes over for dinner quite often.

But what is it about this birthday that just has her feeling a little down? Is it the empty nest, the spacious newly built condo still smelling of drywall and new carpet, which in effect erased all traces of the children she spent her life raising? Is it the extra room they wanted so that maybe someday there might be grandchildren to come visit? She thought those were things she should have had by now, but instead Meadow has gotten a dog for crying out loud!

Nathan’s girlfriend seems like the mothering type, but they aren’t even engaged yet. Aurora has mentioned that she isn’t even sure she wants children at all. Aurora and Joel lost a baby about six years ago actually, a pregnancy they weren't trying for but grew fond of in its short time, and Meadow wonders if that might have something to do with it. Still, she doesn’t understand why two people so in love wouldn't at least want to try.

The kids all come after dinner to share birthday cake. Aurora and Joel have a newlywed glow and tans from their honeymoon on Twikki Island. Meadow goes to greet her family. So when are the two of you going to give me grandkids, Meadow almost said, would have normally said, which was just one of those intrusive things that used to set the two of them off bickering. Just in time, she holds her tongue to stave off the fireworks. To maintain this wonderful and fragile new relationship with the grown up woman her daughter has become.

author's note: well, that one was a little bit serious (and, um, sentimental :). I just thought I'd note that I'm not writing these updates with any story in mind. I don't play that way. Things just happen however they happen, per the character's whims or the cards of fate- really, an actual deck of cards that decide their fates ;) And a little imagination thrown in, of course, since Sims are not capable of complex thoughts and emotions. So, be it funny, serious, tragic, or sappy, c'est la vie!

gameplay note: I have a little rule that any townie involved in a serious romantic relationship with one of my playables must be made playable herself, which is how everyone's favorite little teenybopper Meadow Thayer earned her life in Lakeside Heights, when she went off to college with high school sweetheart Jeremy Nova. But the relationship is far from guaranteed after they've earned their playable status. As you can see since she is no longer with Jeremy ;)