Year 1 - Autumn - Harwood
Over to the Harwoods, where Alexander grows up and (after a quick makeover) makes things official with his wife to be.
The wedding is so cute! I teleported over all the Dowricks, and tried out Chris Hatch’s wedding mat. It lets you have bridesmaids and even plays cute wedding music! I’m a huge fan.
Thomas is a family sim and should be happy to see his daughter happily married! But he can’t help feeling saddened. He hadn’t counted on how much he was going to miss his little girl…
With Helen’s skills as a salesperson and Joshua old enough to help out too, business is booming!
Joshua has such a strange dynamic with Hilda Glanndour. Whenever she walks by they stop to chat, and they’ve become fast friends (even though Hilda has attacked Helen several time).
They have negative chemistry, but every so often he will try and flirt with her, which always gets rejected. It’s so funny to watch.
It’s not long before Helen falls pregnant, and she doesn’t have the easiest time of it! Luckily Alexander is very attentive, and her family visit frequently to check up on her.
Joshua doesn’t like to cramp his brother’s style and gives the couple plenty of privacy, paying a few visits to community lots. I hadn’t realised he & Helen’s younger sister Annie were childhood friends! She’s always offeirng him backrubs, although the two of them don’t actually have any chemistry.
(I need to change her outfit - there’s too many sims running around in that dress already lol.)
With Helen reaching her third trimester, the neighbourhood’s new midwife, Bryanna, comes to stay. She’s full of advice for Helen, most of it stuff like “please stop chopping wood while pregnant”, but Helen doesn’t appreciate her nagging!
Bryanna has 3 younger siblings, so I imagine it’s possible she was around for their births. Witnessing her own mother dying in childbirth was likely a very formative experience for her, and part of why she chose this career.
Right as I was thinking about Bryanna's past experience with her mother, Helen died! How awful for Bryanna, she felt like a complete failure of a midwife.
I felt so bad that I let Alexander plead for his wife. Luckily he suceeded! In-universe, I’m treating pleading with the reaper as an attempt to perform emergency medical care. Making up some quick rules to retroactively justify myself (lol), in order to plead:
- A healer or midwife must be present
- OR the sim must have studied physiology
The baby is a girl, and they name her Diana Hardwood.
Bryanna helps out with care for the infant while Margery recovers from her ordeal. But with Joshua around to help out too, they don’t need her for long. Alexander thanks her profusely for all her help, and gifts her the last few days worth of wood & fruit as payment.
Joshua painted a portrait of the baby! Aw, it pays to have an artist for a brother-in-law.
When fetching water from the community well, the couple ran into Helen’s mother and sister. They invited them back to meet the baby :)
(Although they spent most of the time complaining about the mess, lol! I still hate home businesses.)
With paying Bryanna and not being able to do as much business as usual, I was a little worried about the Harwoods paying their taxes. Luckily they still had a lot of money left over from the previous round. Phew!
You would think after that near-death experience they might hold out before having any more kids, but Helen & Alexander immeidately tried for baby again after she gave birth and now she is pregnant again 🙄