Emily Marie Kenward
Emily Kenward is a nurse.
History
"I don't know what to say. I'm used to saying I'm okay even if I'm not."
Emily is the youngest of four children (Elijah, the late Charlotte, Nicholas) to Michael and Caroline Kenward. She was born in Valentine, New Alexandria but at the age of two, her family moved out to Pennsylvania and built a life there. With the help of her brothers, her father, a retired war veteran of a few wars, built a stable for horses to hide his outlaw gang work with his brother. He opened a store to cover the growing income and to help that, Emily's mother used her nursing career, while secretly having an affair. When she decided to break it off, the man traumatized Emily and when she was rescued, she was attacked again years later until her father's gang finally "took care of it" and made sure he never bothered them again. Emily began to suffer from suppressed memories and from at the suggestion of her mother, they let her do so and live without remembering some events, even some memories of the gang.
As Emily's siblings and she grew older, they all graduated with diplomas and began to pursue their desired aspirations in life. Elijah worked in a small shop and in his free time, he'd assist his father in training horses. Nicholas began racing horses and in his free time, he'd travel. Emily assisted her mother in farming and in her free time, she enjoyed drawing and dreamed of publishing her writings. Charlotte began spending more time away from her home to be with her boyfriend and many of her hobbies were unknown. Their life was pretty decent until tragedy struck. From what reports said, Charlotte had decided to break up with her boyfriend and when he couldn't convince her to stay, he killed her. This affected Emily's mother deeply and it also affected Emily due to the fact that she tried to help Charlotte, and is the reason she refuses to wear dresses and skirts. Things only got worse when her father's stable caught fire and damaged the majority of it. Over the next few months, her father and brothers rebuilt the stables when another tragedy struck.
Her mother had developed an addiction to pills and overdosed on her medication. She was pronounced dead at the medical center and her father decided he couldn't live in the house anymore although Emily would later discover it had suffered a fire and that is why he moved out. He continued his gang activity along with his brother and to keep Emily from asking questions, he ran the store with her which worked. One day she was told her father died due to a mixture of alcohol poison and pills but later found out he was murdered because of gang activity. Her suppressed memories started coming back over time, slowly. Over time, she was finally told she remembered her age wrong due to the trauma and after some coping and making up with her second father (her uncle, who took the role of her father), she finally was told her age and why it was kept from her.
Even to this day, there are still missing pieces of the puzzle she is still putting together including possible missing family members.
Events in Saint's Crossing
She came to the Crossing to start a better life after things went sour with her life in a poorer part of Tennessee. She stated the town was just as poorly run, which was later confirmed by an adopted brother she'd run into. She ran into her adopted brother, Robert Waters, and he took her in and along with his friends, Alejandro Garcia and Fox Retskirt. They gave her money to survive and along with friendly townsfolk, they showed her how to survive in the Crossing the legal way. Emily knew Robert Waters was into some illegal activity and out of respect for her, Robert wanted her to keep a clean slate and he made sure she did but always asked her to keep her ear close to the ground and she did as requested for him as best as she could.
In the meantime, she pursued medicine and was well on her way to getting there but before her brother could see it, he attempted a robbery he knew he couldn't win. After a betrayal and ultimately a failed relationship, he attempted a train robbery with his good friend, Alejandro, which led to both of them being shot down and killed. It set her in an emotional breakdown and even caused her to lash out at him at his grave for abandoning her but once she regained composure, she had him buried in Colter as he wanted and still visits him from time to time. She is now a licensed medic nurse and therapist and aims to continue studying medicine.
She married Fox Retskirt on 08/25/1900 where she said her vows in Strawberry and they officiated it in front of the trees with the four faces. Things went well for a while but she noticed little things after he disappeared for a long period, she filed for divorce on 11/14/1900 for desertion and abandonment and due to no response in the alluded amount of time, it was granted and finalized by the state on November 22nd, 1900. On December 2nd, 1900, Fox Retskirt showed up once last time and Emily spoke to him and they gave their final words to each other and made peace. He confirmed he would not try to stop the divorce and would confirm with the state after one final goodbye. Emily has not seen Fox since then.
For nearly two months, a man who once scared her, Koxinga Zheng, became her protector and vowed to protect her from any harm coming her way. In the month of December 1900, she began working at a gun shop in St Denis under Koxinga and his brother Bai Li. She remained under Koxinga's protection even during this time and it continues to remain that way.
Around December 27th, 1900, Noah Little contacted her through telegram. After she had treated him sometime back, they became friends but lost contact. They met up with each other and formed a good friendship with each other again. On the 28th of December, Noah asked Emily on a date for the next day and on their date the following day, the 29th, they officially got together but right after Noah left.
After some time, she became a member of the Tai Pan family, "The Hong", and is now considered an official family member of Tai Pan and calls them her Crossing family. Outside of that, she has taken the test for her nursing license and passed, and she is currently in studies for counseling and psychological therapy. They continue to reside in St Denis and have no plans of moving. She eventually quit Taipan after realizing they were a cult.
Character
Personality
Emily is usually friendly and because of this people don't realize she actually does have a shy side to her and can be very introverted despite being a medical practitioner (nurse) and rushing to emergencies when needed. She's observant and quiet when others are in conversation. She lets others lead the conversation unless she's spoken to. She has become someone who finds it hard to truly make close friends anymore because she feels as if it's hard for people to stay close to her. In her mind, everyone she got close to abandoned her, except for Taipan, so while she is usually polite, she finds it hard to trust.
Appearance
Emily is 5'7" tall, with brown hair and green eyes. She used to go to the barber and have them put charcoal in it to make it black but never usually goes too light on her hair. She sometimes is seen with glasses because she feels it helps with light sensitivity during extreme headaches. She is always in pants and will never be seen in skirts or dresses due to a past traumatic event. She now has a light scar over her right eye due to an attack that happened because she followed her oath.
Relationships
- Adopted sister to the late Robert Waters
- Had a friendship with Senior Deputy D. Gunn and trusted him
- Friendship with Mark Allen and hopes to see him since discovering he was in the Crossing
- Divorced from Fox Retskirt (Featherstone) on good terms.
- Had a brief relationship with Noah Little
Trivia
- Emily used to suffer from suppressed memories and with advice from her mother, who was a nurse, her family let her live that way until much later when she finally remembered.
- She went years believing she was one age until she was finally told her true age after she questioned her birth certificates never having a year on them and it was said that her mother did that to protect her fragile mind at the time
- Emily sometimes has a hard time telling people how she really feels so she says she's fine even when she's really not. Some time ago when asked, she told Dakotah Gunn, "I don't know how I am, I'm used to saying I'm fine."
- While she lives a rather "boring" life as she calls it when she's not working, her late father and uncle did not. They had their own outlaw gang in Pennsylvania and they used two names and two outfits with this gang but to this day the more potent outfit has never been caught and never identified due to how well they disguised themselves, plotted, the connections they had, and the people they paid off. As her brothers got older they joined and the gang(s) is still active today, run by her uncle. She is a member by relation to her family but doesn't participate in the activities and only gives medical treatment.
- Emily cannot speak Latin but she can write in it but only vaguely and when asked to read it, she will pretend as if she doesn't know it. This was something taught to her by her father and uncle
- She works in St Denis gun shop on her off time or when not doing medical work under Koxinga. She still remains under his protection.