dannys_martyr

Name: Janey McKinnon

Age: 31

Gender: female

Type: Dreamer

Appearance:

Janey is about five-foot six and slender, with curly, well-tamed auburn locks that frame a pretty face that still holds a shadow of the youthful beauty she possessed. Her eyes are dark and expressive and she has a bright smile, when she chooses to wear it. She dresses practically for her job, nothing too fancy, but manages to keep her own unique style with a vast array of subtle accents such as jewelry.

Personality:

Janey has always been meek. Growing up in a large family where she was the only girl caused her to take the quiet road. She's strong in her convictions and a loyal friend, more likely to speak up to defend others than to aid herself.

Janey suffers from low self-esteem and depression. It stems deeply from the fact that she always grew up knowing she wanted children, and having failed to raise her own she feels she has failed herself in a sense. She feels she has let down her husband, due to the fact that their marriage was partly forced by her early pregnancy that did not come to fruition. She does everything she can to make up for this to him, whether he knows it or not, but she never feels she’s doing enough.
Despite this inner darkness, Janey is very optimistic and friendly. Most people find her pleasant to talk to or to be around, and will warm up to and trust her quite easily. She is a giver—in a sense perhaps to make up for her lack of offspring to care for. She is very much known to get involved in other people’s personal lives, whether they be students, parishioners, or neighbors, but no one sees this as nosy because of the way it is clear that she simply has so much to give. She doesn’t claim to know what’s best for anyone, but she does know when there’s something that needs to change. She is an active member of the church, and very involved in the soup kitchen, another way she feels she can give back to the community.

She tries to care for people's needs through prayer as well, visiting the cathedral on a regular basis. She clings to the comfort of the ritualistic nature of the Catholic church, often using the rosary or other prayers to soothe herself to sleep when insomnia strikes her, which it often does. She does her best to hide any personal problems from the outside world, especially from her husband, Danny, although she doesn’t always succeed. She knows how lucky she is to have a warm bed to sleep in and a husband who cares about her, so she doesn’t want anyone to worry about her when there are other people who need the concern far more than she does.

Janey loves literature, especially poetry. When she’s not cooking for the church, grading papers, or praying, she’s likely to be caught with her nose buried in a book. Poetry is a comfort for her in a similar way that prayer is—the rhythm and the beauty of the words can sweep her away from the world, if only for a little while. The bookstores and library of the city are her sanctuaries—second only, of course, to the church. Her favorite poet is Anne Bradstreet, to whom she feels connected due to Bradstreet's poems expressing her strong faith and her devotion to family.

Sexuality:

Heterosexual

City History:

Janey comes from a large, loud and typically Irish family. She's the youngest of six kids and the only girl. Growing up, her brothers spent most of her time protecting her, and as a result she never learned to fight her own fights. She developed a meek personality from constantly being around such loud and outspoken people. As a young girl she wanted for nothing, but never crossed over into the spoiled territory, mostly due to the brothers keeping each other in check when it came to doting on her.

As she grew into a teenager, her brothers’ protective natures went into overdrive when they realized their only sister’s beauty and her air of innocence made her a magnet for trouble. She was one of the prettiest girls in her class, but was so shy and submissive that she became an easy target for the boys to try and take advantage of. After a few brushes with heartbreak she met Danny McKinnon in her junior year, and he became her entire world. Her brothers were wary, having seen this happen in the past only to end disastrously, but with Danny it was clear he cared for Janey in a different way than any of the other guys had.

He had already been welcomed in by the men of the family by the time they found out she was pregnant, close to graduation. Danny and Janey decided to get married without hesitation, though there was some underlying anxiety for both parties. Just a few weeks after the wedding, however, they lost the baby, and Janey sank into a deep depression that she only truly climbed out of when she became pregnant again a year later. The second miscarriage didn’t cripple her quite so much, though it wasn’t any less painful. By the fourth, she and Danny realized that they were only bringing themselves more pain, and they gave up on having children of their own. But for Janey the need to be a mother was rooted deeply within her. They got in touch with the orphanage in order to discuss adoption, but didn’t get very far in the process. It was right around Danny’s promotion, and they decided they just weren’t in the right place in their lives to bring someone else’s child into the family, and Janey resigned herself to the fact that maybe motherhood wasn’t in her future after all.

To combat her depression and loneliness, Janey started becoming more involved in the church. A fellow parishioner convinced her to pursue the interest in teaching she’d had since high school, and Janey got her degree through correspondence courses. She was hired almost immediately a local school and is still employed there as an English teacher for junior-high and high school students.

She is not as oblivious to her husband’s alcoholism as she pretends to be, but she still loves him as much as she did when she was in high school. On her good days she tells herself that despite his fits of anger, at least he’s never laid a hand on her. On the bad days she blames herself for his drinking, assuming it’s because of his disappointment in their marriage and the fact that she can’t have children. But no matter her mood she does her best to stay available and understanding, which is a part of her forgiving nature.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Growing up as the only girl she spent a lot of time at her mother’s side in the kitchen, cooking for “the boys”. She is often recruited by the church to cook or bake for funeral luncheons because she’s known for being comfortable with cooking for large groups, and her fellow churchgoers know her for never baking a pie or casserole that failed to make their mouths water.

She has an uncanny knack for memorization, developed from years of Catholic-school education combined with her love of poetry. She can memorize almost anything rhythmic that she hears or reads (poems, prayers, songs) without even trying.

Weaknesses:

Depression: Janey’s depression comes and goes, but when it hits, it hits hard. She’ll do her best to hide it, but there are days when all she can do is curl up in bed and float in her cloud of self-loathing and despair.

Guilt: Along with her feelings of low self-worth comes Janey's tendency for guilt, even in places where she shouldn't feel guilty. She always wants the people she cares about to be happy, and when she can't make this happen, she finds herself feeling solely responsible for their problems.

Meekness: Janey is not the type to stand up for herself, as she's never had to fight her own fights before. All her life, the men in her life have taken care of her and she wouldn't know where to start. She tends to keep quiet about the things that bother her or upset her, assuming they’re unimportant.

Meddlesome: Janey's determination to help anyone can be offensive to some people, especially when it comes off as meddlesome. She has a tendency to offer assistance with personal problems even when no help is wanted, or needed. Of course she only offers when she thinks a person needs help, even if that person can't see it themselves. On more than one occasion she's had the door slammed in her face when she showed up at an unsuspecting neighbor's stoop with green-bean casserole and unwanted advice.

Strengths:

Loyal/Trustworthy: Everyone knows Janey is trying to save the world, even if it seems impossible; so many people turn to her for advice and a helping hand or a shoulder to lean on when the going gets tough. She'll stand at your side for as long as she can, provided you don't cross her husband or her religious beliefs. She'll do anything in her power to help those closest to her

Sees the good in others: Janey always capable of finding the good in others (which is sometimes infuriating to her husband who mostly sees things in black and white). She wants to believe the world is truly good, despite evidence to the contrary, and she tries her hardest to see it this way.

Family or Connections:

Married to Danny McKinnon

Knows many people through the church

Residence:

Danny and Janey live in an apartment in the Irish district of town, not far from where they both grew up and also near the police station.

Career:

English teacher

PB: Geena Davis

Other Information:

Handwriting: