For the previous week with the Giekes, simply click on their label above and scroll down until you reach their update from 2015 (that is how long I have not played them!).
Ever since Tara and Chester set eyes on each other, they were firm 3-bolters. They got married many years ago, and shared a house with Tara's three cats until they, one by one, went to the great big cat basket in the sky, after having lived very long and very happy lives with their humans.
Tara was a little at a loss about what to do with herself while Chester was out for work; there is only so much cleaning and cooking you can do for two people, and she could not ALWAYS have friends over, could she?
So she convinced Chester to move to the Senior Residence, where we find them arriving at the very early hours of Sunday morning. Chester is 70 and on Permanent Platinum since he became Education Minister of New Maximiliania at the age of 66. Tara is 66 now, and I must admit I was not really surprised to find that her lifetime want has changed AGAIN: She now wants to marry off six children! I'm sorry, Tara, it is way too late for that.
You all know the Senior Residence, of course. But who lives here now, apart from the newly arrived Giekes?
Here are Tom Freshe, 68 years old, and Jessie Dosser (nee Pilferson), at 75 the oldest current resident.
Tom's wife Ellen, nee Frost, is 68 like her husband.
Mickey Dosser is Jessie's husband and one year younger than she is.
As Tara is the only Sim here who is not on Permanent Platinum, she is also the only one who is fully controlled by me. She is a very neat Sim and rallies everyone round to help with the gardening.
Of course, during the day Chester discovers the poker table. After several games with his co-residents, he is given the special plaque for maximum game enthusiasm. (Everyone here has it!
The Giekes go to bed in the late afternoon. You knwo what elderly Sims are like when it comes to sleeping patterns.
When Jessie returns from work, she is met by the Grim Reaper. Jessie was 76 years old when she died. Her husband does not know that she's gone yet; he is still at work.
Tara is cleaning up old newspapers on her own accord. She seriously thinks about adopting - but she simply won't be around long enough to see one child get married, let alone six!
Tara has been gardening for hours, and has not even noticed that it is Monday morning already.
Tom is up early and takes care of Blacky, the little womrat that used to be his daughter's.
Mickey returns from work, learning of his wife's death, and breaks into tears right away - he was not there to see her off on her last trip! But he is confident that he will join her soon.
The Freshes enjoy a game of poker together - what else :-)
Tara's efforts have resulted in the Senior Residence's front garden looking neat and tidy for the first time in what feels like years!
She has been sleeping all morning - no wonder after all that hard work during the night - and is joined for a late lunch by Ellen. She tells her new acquaintance of how she suddenly realized she would have loved to have children, but that it is too late now. Ellen has lost her step-daughter (Freiya Freshe was her husband's half-Alien child) and can relate to Tara's feeling of loss.
But why does she gossip about her husband with Mickey Dosser later? That's not very nice, is it! Hopefully she just thought to cheer up Mickey after his wife's death the day before.
Chester has taken the wrong decision with a chance card and was demoted. He walks back to work right away, and returns home reinstated in his old position as Education Minister.
Mickey was right in assuming that he would not have to wait long before he'd be reunited with his beloved Jessie - he dies in the early hours of Tuesday morning, just as he is about to get himself something to eat. Bye-bye, Dossers!
The day before, just to see what would happen, I had Tara call the adoption service - she wanted it so much! And i thought, maybe she can adopt teenagers, and I'll have them marry really early, without sending them to college...? But of course it did not work like that.I have not adopted often in my game, and so I did not remember that Sims can only choose between babies, toddlers and children. Tara chose a child, and Lisa Gieke arrived shortly after 10 a.m. on that Tuesday.
For a while, Tara is utterly happy, and so is Chester, seeing his wife so radiant. Lisa is happy, too, and Blacky must be glad to have a little girl look after him again - his original owner died so long ago.
But just as Tara is about to help her little girl with her first homework, along come Grimmy and his Hula Girls! There could not have been a worse moment. Tara was only 69.
"I did not know my new Mummy very well, but she seemed to be very nice, and my Daddy is really sad about her death," she thinks.
Tom volunteers to help the youngest resident at the Senior Residence with her homework, but Lisa can't complete the task; she is overwhelmed with emotions: first the happiness at finding new parents, and then the sudden death of her "Mummy".
I foresee a rather lonely and somewhat different childhood for this little girl. She is now the only Sim I control in this household.
Wednesday morning starts with Tom having a bath.
He then helps Lisa completing yesterday's homework. What about her new Daddy? Where is Chester?
In spite of just having lost his 3-bolt-love and wife plus having a new adoptive daughter to take care of, Chester went to work - not setting the best example as Education Minister.
He returned completely exhausted, fainting on the spot where his limousine dropped him off. For most of the evening, Chester lies there in the cold on the pavement. Eventually, he gets up and finds his way to one of the many beds to choose from.
Thursday morning has Chester waking up to a surprise: He realises he has 3 bolts for Ellen, and she appears to be mightily attracted to him, too - in spite of being happily married to Tom (whom she only has one bolt for).
When hours later Tom comes across Chester in the garden on his way to work, he can not help but notice Chester looking a little odd. "I wonder what's the matter with him... ah well, it will be grief, so soon after losing his wife," he muses.
For Lisa, things seem to be taking a turn for the better: She returns to the Senior Residence with her first A+!
But her joy is short-lived: Just as her Daddy is about to congratulate her for her efforts at school, Grimmy joins the party.
The poor little girl has lost both her adoptive parents in the space of a few days! Tom feels somewhat helpless in front of this situation, although he himself is no stranger to loss - his own daughter died when she was still young.
Soon after the previous picture was taken, Lisa goes to bed, exhausted from the day's events. On Friday morning, she wakes up long before dawn, and remembers that she never got round to doing her homework yesterday. "Daddy would have wanted me to do it," she says to herself. But is it healthy for a little girl to do her homework all alone at 3:30 in the morning?
And is it healthy for a little girl to have leftover layer cake for breakfast, with yesterday's dirty plates still around?
The sight of so much snow lifts Lisa's heavy little heart.
When she comes home from school, Stacy Stacks walks by and is surprised by the polite little girl greeting her. "Do you live here?" she asks; so far, this was always a place where elderly Sims live.
Lisa is glad to have someone nearer her age for company this afternoon, and she brings out plates of Santa cookies for both of them. "I had a Mummy and a Daddy... for a little while... They adopted me, and they lived here, so I am living here now," she explains.
Stacy reassures her young host that things will get somewhat easier as she grows up.
Saturday, the last day of this week at the Senior Residence, starts with Ellen doing some cleaning on her own accord.
As I have not sent the residents to a community lot yet this week, it is only fair to send them today, what with Lisa not having to go to school. The taxi pulls up at Central Park East.
At first, Lisa is fascinated with the breakdancer (children can not learn to breakdance, unfortunately).
But then she discovers something a lot more fascinating: a teenage boy! Carl Capp politely greets the little girl and even plays with Lisa on the playground for a while.
In the meantime, Ellen and Tom have a hotdog, while other Sims enjoy a game of kicky bag.
The week is over. The Freshes are now 74, and in another 3 days, Lisa will be a teenager. Is she going to stay at the Senior Residence for now, or will she move to a different place, maybe in with a family whose way of life is more appropriate for a young girl?
How long are Ellen and Tom going to be around? Who is going to move to the Senior Residence next?
