I have been hearing Esme struggle to remember things about her human life lately. Some of them were about the baby she had, and some of them were about her parents and her childhood. Most were normal things a person- or vampire- would want to remember from their life. Some of them, however, seemed rather upsetting. So I sat down with Esme, my vampire mother of sorts, and had a very heartwarming talk. She told me many things, in them I learned the story of her past.
When Esme was a child, she was fairly happy, sheltered, and had no real complaints. She lived with her parents on a small farm outside Columbus, Ohio. The thing Carlisle has been hiding in his thoughts lately? Esme broke her arm when she was 16, and the local doctor was on vacation so her parents took her into Columbus to be treated. That was in 1911, and Carlisle had been a doctor there for a while, and had treated Esme. He remembered her in the morgue when he found her.
Anyways, her farm life was simple, and she was happy. All of her friends married before her, and she had no real desire to follow along- although she was very open to the idea of falling in love if the right man had come along. She wanted to be a school teacher. Her father disagreed, however, telling her how innapropriate it would be for a lady to live on her own, when already she had a possible suitor. There was a family friend who had a son her age, willing to court her. His name was Charles Evenson, and he was nice enough, but there were no sparks flying between them. She didn't like nor dislike him. Under pressure from her parents, she decided to marry Charles.
The marriage quickly turned bad. He was a very angry person inside, and took his anger out on her. He hit her whenever he found reason, which was often. She went to her parents for help, but their help consisted of telling her that a good wife was a quiet and helpful wife. Charles was drafted after a while, and she welcomed his absence with the peace it brought. Unfortunately, it only lasted so long, before he returned and his beatings resumed. (It is a shame I did not come along yet when Esme were being beaten, how I would have like to have sought out this man when I was in my revenge-seeking phase.)
Before long, she was with child. It was wonderful news to Esme. Not only was she going to have a child, but it was her reason to run away from Charles. She would never allow an innocent child to see or feel the abuse Charles inflicted upon her. She had a second cousin in Milwaukee who helped her out for a while, but her parents found out she was there, so she had to go further north. She was determined, and she is a very strong woman.
Since the country was in time of war, it was fairly easy to pretend she was a war widow, and she found work as a school teacher. She was happy for the first time in a long time. Relief was upon her. Unfortunately, relief was short. Her pregnancy went by fast and her baby died of a lung infection only a few days after birth. She felt completely lost.
She tried to continue on for a while, an empty barren woman, with no purpose to life. It is amazing how much I feel I have in common with the old Esme and how she felt, like she lost purpose with her life, and how I lost purpose with mine. The difference between us is that she was able to throw herself off of a cliff to end her suffering. I know that part of the story already, because that is when she was taken to the hospital and Carlisle found her and changed her.
She is a happy vampire now. It makes me re-examine the way I look at things. She continues on with her life now. Happy and in love. She has let go of the sadness in her life and carried on, with so many bright days before her, grateful for the second chance at life and what she has been given. She wonders why I cannot do the same. It makes me wonder as well.
Source: http://twilightlexicon.com/2006/03/11/personal-correspondance-1/
