Sims Life Musings

Life had been very quiet in the Gardener household since Jack had grown into a hardworking and well liked young man. With three sets of wages the family’s fortune was also improving, although it was still very modest compared to their neighbours’. Financial security had become very important to Jack, as he’d recently married a young nurse by the name of Brooke Wade and their first child was due within the next few months. It was his mother, Molly, who broke the news to him one hot summer morning, and the small cottage was a hive of activity as preparations were made for the new arrival.

Jack and Brooke’s first meeting was a blind date of sorts, but they formed an instant and unshakeable bond that strengthened every day they were together. Luckily for Jack his parents were very fond of Brooke, who was his first serious girlfriend, and they were thrilled when the young couple announced that they intended to marry. Their quiet but romantic wedding ceremony was followed by four days alone at the cottage, Bill and Molly having arranged to spend the time visiting Molly’s elderly aunt in the north of the kingdom.

It was during their "at home honeymoon" that Brooke conceived and, although the usual signs of pregnancy were slow to appear at first, it soon became apparent why she began each morning feeling sick to her stomach. 

Morning sickness and unusual cravings aside, Brooke was looking forward to motherhood with a vengance. This was partly due to growing up in the workhouse where her mother - little more than a child herself - had abandoned her when she was just a few days old. She never saw her mother again, and would cry herself to sleep every night wondering what she had done to make her mother hate her enough to give her up. 

It took her a long time to fully realise how difficult it would have been for her mother to raise her, as a young woman with an illegitimate child could hardly scrape together enough money to look after herself, let alone a child. Brooke was determined that she would never give herself to a man unless she was married and able to care for their child for as long as he or she lived under the same roof, as she couldn’t face the idea of a child of hers growing up without her and a loving father.

As the months passed and she continued to get larger, Brooke began to wonder if she was expecting twins. Names had been chosen for either a boy or a girl, but she and Jack hadn’t even considered the prospect of two new additions to the family.