Goth / Roseland Family Album

Here are some assorted snaps from before the chapters about the Goth-Roseland family started:

 The original Goth villa.

 Mortimer and his children discussing the move to a new house.

Arriving at the new place.

The  welcome committee consisted of Darren Dreamer, Wanda Tinker and Marcel Jocque, who made the mistake of asking Alexander about school - never a very good idea when one wants to make the acquaintance of a kid!

 Cassandra's room looks all modern, and she's about to get rid of her pigtails, too.

The "new" Cassandra playing chess with her little brother Alexander...

...and helping him with his homework.

This soon paid off, and Alexander brought home his first A+.

Mortimer found that he felt as lonely here as he had done at the old villa, with the only difference being that there was not much here to remind him of Bella, his lost wife.

He even went into aspiration failure one day.

A new hobby, flower-arranging, helped a little, but there was still lacking something important in his life.

Meanwhile, Alexander grew up into a teenager.

He still did very well at school, but now he discovered something new:

Girls! (This is Sally Riley, who during her teens could be relied upon appearing on each and every lot I played throughout the neighbourhood, as long as there were other teenagers there.)

While shopping for clothes, he met Sharla Ottomas and, for a brief moment, was impressed enough by her blonde curls and sexy outfit that he thought about what their children would look like.

Apart from having pillow fights with Lucy Burb...

...he soon found out that there were other ways to enjoy a girls' company. 

When it was time for Lucy to move to college, they kissed each other good-bye and promised to keep in touch. Sadly, later Alexander learned that Lucy died in a fire that had broken out at her dorm on campus when lightning had struck a metal railing.
(You can read about that tragic event here: http://mekssims2.blogspot.de/2012/08/la-fiesta-tech-student-stories-lucy-burb.html)

He found some solace in music. One of his sister's dogs often "joined in" when he was practising on the violin.

Christmas did a lot to cheer him up; Cassandra had made every effort to create a happy atmosphere for the holidays.

She herself was having the happiest time in her life, ever since her mother disappeared. One morning, she had met and greeted Cyd Roseland, who was walking his dog and came past the Goth villa by chance.

They kept seeing each other and found they had a lot in common - last but not least, their love of dogs and Salsa music.

More often than not, Cyd was asked to stay for lunch or dinner, which usually meant Alexander quickly leaving the table when the two of them started holding hands. The gardener, it seemed, was not quite so sensitive :-)

Then, finally, Cassandra dared asking Cyd to move in, and he happily accepted. You have noticed the lady in black in the background of the previous picture, haven't you?

For Mortimer, it was love at first sight when he met Olive Specter.

During a house party, she impressed him greatly with her liveliness, sense of humour and musicality.

Their good-bye after the party ended in a passionate kiss. Mortimer couldn't wait to see her again and invited her over the next day.

He told her that neither of them had time to lose, and wouldn't it make perfect sense if she and her niece Ophelia moved in with them, so that they could enjoy their remaining years together? "I thought you'd never ask," was Olive's happy reply.

She moved in the very same day.

For Ophelia, the move had come at a crucial time in her life. She had just received her scholarships (not that she needed the money - her aunt was a wealthy woman) for university.

She left for campus on the same day.

Alexander had mastered his grief for Lucy and started to invite girls over again. Sandra Roth and Tara DeBateau were his guests one evening. He found that he got along extremely well with Tara - they seemed to be really "in tune", not just when he was accompanying her on the piano when she was playing the violin.

She also loved dogs, which was important in a house like the Goths'.

Shortly before he had to leave for college, he took up his courage and asked Tara to be his girlfriend.

He boarded the taxi to campus the next morning.

Now the two happy couples, Cyd & Cass and Mortimer & Olive, were on their own.

Cyd and Cassandra had, by the way, tied the knot not long after he had moved in (in fact, they got married when Alexander was really still a child, as you can see in the picture - but for the sake of the story, I made it appear that he was a teenager when Cyd moved in.)

They were an elegant couple on their wedding day, don't you think?

On her 65th birthday, Olive died.

 Her tombstone was placed in the gazebo in the garden, which now functioned as a mausoleum.

When, only a few nights later, the lamp on Mortimer's desk moved about, he was not scared - he knew it was Olive giving him a sign.

He was soon going to join her, he was sure of that, as he observed her ghost.

And he was right - he died at 65, too.

Most of what happened after that is already in the chapters about the Goth-Roseland family.