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All families in this game are part of one larger family, the Gardners, a family from the first half of the twentieth century. This NTNB will follow them from the end of WWII to today. Backstory is provided and please take note of time periods.

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When Susanna Gardiner met Colin Gardner in 1932, it was as her first lodger in the boarding house she had decided to open. They thought it funny that they shared the same last name, though spelled differently, and soon became friends. Susanna, 31 at the time, already had three daughters, girls she had adopted as infants from various sad and almost unlikely situations. Rose, Violet, and Poppy, all named for flowers because, as Susanna said, "Children raised by Gardiners almost have no choice but to have flower names," had noticed the two falling in love with one another, and decided they had better get them married. "A woman with three adopted daughters half grown-up doesn't get much chance to meet nice men," Rose had said, "Especially not men who would be perfect for them." So through various methods, mostly gained by reading Shakespeare, they managed to get their mother and Colin to admit their love and be together. Not long after, more children came, adding to the crop of little Gardners. Eventually Rose, Violet, and Poppy all fell in love themselves, but coming of age on the brink of WWII was a dangerous thing, and one by one their loved ones were drafted. It is now 1946, however, and every one of them has made it home safely in one piece. Everyone is ready to settle down to living and put the war behind them.

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The Gardner Family

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DH: Colin Mackenzie Gardner (b. 1899, age 47)
DW: Susanna Amity Gardiner Gardner (b. 1901, age 45)

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DD: Rose Amelia Gardiner Dawson (b. 1920, age 26)
-DH: Gilbert Alexander Dawson (b. 1919, age 27)
--DD: (5)
--DS: (nb)
Rose, whose birth mother died giving birth to her at an orphanage with no mention of the father, has always felt like something of a female Oliver Twist, but luckier since she was adopted at only a few weeks old and didn't have to live in a horrible workhouse. Susanna was not yet 20 when she adopted her, but she gave her new daughter all the love and affection she could. She was always a bright and confident girl, always a leader, and that is why she decided to become a stage actor when she grew up. Her voice was good and her acting natural, and with her good looks she moved up the stage ranks from chorus girl to leading lady quickly. The stage is where she first met Gilbert. His father owned the theater where rehearsals were held, and one day when they were both twenty he was hanging around a rehearsal and the two met. He was attracted to Rose and she to him, but she didn't want to have to give up acting so she never considered a serious relationship with him, though the two fell in love. But he didn't want her to give up the stage; he thought she was too good to waste her talent. The two married, and a year later had a beautiful daughter. Things were going well; then the war began and Gilbert was drafted. He was gone, leaving his wife and daughter behind. He returned safely, though, and nine months after their joyous reunion they have just had a son! Their daughter's FN honors Susanna (her name does not have to actually be Susanna), and they want their son's FN to honor Colin without using the exact name. Their daughter's MN honors Susanna's Aunt Judith Marianna Gardiner, who was responsible for bringing Rose to Susanna in the first place. They want their son's MN to honor Gilbert's father, James Albert Lyons.

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DD: Violet Samantha Gardiner O'Day (b. 1922, age 24)
-DH: Gabriel Walter O'Day (b. 1922, age 24)
-DD: (nb)
Violet has always been the shy Gardiner daughter, and the one form whom her adoption meant most. Like Rose, her mother died giving birth to her, not long after her father had also died, but Violet was born on a ship bound for America. Aunt Judith was responsible for bringing her home as well, and Violet has always been extremely grateful, seeing as no one really knew what to do with her once they docked. She has always liked nothing more than to read, unless perhaps it was to write, and she devoured every book Susanna and later Colin ever gave her and filled up notebooks full of observations, stories, and poems. Her smarts earned her a scholarship to college, and while there she toyed with the idea of becoming a journalist. In the end, however, she decided novels were her passion, and she wanted to write them. She was encouraged in this by Gabe O'Day, a boy she met in college and soon began seeing. He was studying music, and played the violin so beautifully it sometimes made her cry. The two had just become engaged when he too, was drafted. He returned safely as well, but disgusted with all the horrors he had seen (he had liberated concentration camps). He wanted nothing to do with war anymore, and threw himself into his music and his new wife. He gained a position with the New York Philharmonic, a dream he had always cherished, and Violet published a novel based on her experiences growing up. Best of all, however, she has just given birth to a daughter! They want her FN to honor Susanna, though be distinct from Rose's daughter's name, and her MN to be related to music or a famous musician.

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DD: Poppy Elizabeth Gardiner Renault (b. 1924, age 22)
-DH: David Jacques Renault (b. 1924, age 22)
--DD: (nb)
Poppy was given the name Elizabeth by her birth parents. She was only three months old when her father, a fisherman in San Francisco, drowned in a storm. Her mother, a singer and dancer with the opera house, grew depressed and turned to alcohol, and one night stumbled in front of a streetcar and was killed. Aunt Judith, who knew the woman a little, took her to Susanna as there was no family to take her. Susanna changed her name to Poppy, as all Gardiner children needed flower names, and Elizabeth became her middle name. Always precocious and headstrong, as well as a talented dancer from childhoodshe too joined the stage, as a ballerina. She also sang beautifully, and loved to go to jazz clubs and join the bands in singing there. That was where she met David. He was a soldier on leave, and she was blowing off steam from a Christmas Eve performance of The Nutcracker. He recognized her distinctive strawberry blonde hair; he had seen her as the Sugar Plum Fairy at the ballet only hours before, where he had been with his mother. He walked her home, and the two wound up sitting on the steps of her family's townhouse and talking until almost sunrise. He left three days later, his leave over, but they wrote letters constantly and he saw her every time he had leave for the next three years. When he returned, the two resumed their relationship, and David took a job as a photographer; her war photos became famous for their grtty realism as well as their artistic value. The two married only weeks after his return, and now the two hav also just had a daughter! Poppy wants her FN to honor Susanna just as much as her sisters' daughters do, but as always she wants to do it her own way. The FN should be either an uncommon varient or diminuative of Susanna, a flower because those are Susanna's favorite girl names, or a name that can be gotten from the letters of Susanna (Nana, Nassa, feel free to be creative, just as long as it sounds like a name). Her MN should be French and preferably honor a famous ballerina.

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DD: Iris Alexandra Gardner (b. 1934, age 12)
Iris is the first child Colin and Susanna had together after they were married, the first biological child for both of them. She admires her older sisters talents, and is especially close to Violet, who always lets her read her new writings first. She is an outspoken and active girl who is class president and captain of the girl's softball team at her school. She is a very good writer and painter, and though she isn't sure yet what she wants to do with her life, no one doubts she will make an impact.

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DD: Daisy Sarah Gardner (b 1936, age 10)
Daisy, who is as fresh and sweet as her name implies, is one of those ten year olds who never stops chattering, asking about things, and trying to answer that eternal question--why. She is already thinking about becoming a scientist or perhaps an archaeologist when she grows up, though these are not fields women typically join. That does not deter Daisy, and while everyone is proud of her for having such dreams they are afraid of the opposition she may face when it comes time to realize them.

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DS: Linden Edmund Gardner (b. 1937, age 9)
"This family collects girls," Susanna once said, and everyone thought Linden would be. Everyone was stunned when he was a boy, but pleased nonetheless. It was a hard thing to find him a flower or plant name that didn't sound false or forced or feminine. It was Violet who finally suggested Linden. It fit him perfectly, and Linden Edward Gardner he became. His friends have asked him if it was hard, being the only boy with five sisters, but he has never known anything different and loves all his sisters dearly.

This message was edited 12/1/2010, 3:25 PM