PERSEPHONE JOHNSON EVANS.

DOSSIER.

BIOGRAPHY.

trigger warnings: parental death, child abuse, to be added if requested

☆   Persephone was born into quite an unusual family. Both of her parents were screenwriters. They were also what you would probably call hippies. Very in touch with nature, very free-spirited, that kind of thing. Due to these eccentricities of theirs, they didn’t give Persephone her name until she was 6 months old. Because of their limited (at the time) fame, they were allowed to do so. They chose Persephone’s name because of her attachment to nature and natural quality of resilience.

She grew into a happy child. She and her parents were best friends. They did everything together. Though they did make sure that she got the opportunity to interact with children her age. Because of her parents’ dislike of the system, Persephone was homeschooled. She was taught by her parents and by tutors who were just as eccentric as her parents were. She did well in all her lessons, though her best subjects were history and English. Her natural curiosity led to her learning more about what interested her.

Her life was good. She had her parents. She had a few friends. Everything was perfect. Until she was 10 years old. Her parents went to a wedding and left Persephone with a friend of theirs. But something happened on their way home: a car accident, a tragic thing. Both of them were killed. The family friend offered to look after Persephone. However, she had children of her own and was, in the end, not able to take care of the girl. Persephone’s extended family were contacted but as both of her parents were estranged from their families due to their free-spirited lifestyle, none of them were willing to take her in. Therefore Persephone became a ward of the state.

It didn’t take long for her to get placed into a foster home, adorable kid that she was. She quickly found foster parents to take her in. But things didn’t work out so well for Persephone.

TRIGGER WARNING: ABUSE

Her foster parents grew to dislike her due to her “strange” beliefs and her nonconformity. She didn’t fit in in “regular” school due to her years of homeschooling and her overall offbeat personality. It didn’t bother her much, though. The kids laughed at her and teased her about her name. They would call her Persy-pony instead of Persephone. Rather than annoying her, the nickname comforted her as it was what her parents would occasionally call her. She didn’t care about the kids and their teasing. However, her foster parents did. They began to regularly yell at her. Their words hurt, but they could not completely get Persephone down. It simply was not in her nature to be anyone but who she was.

One day she decided to run away. She thought if she could just get back to the house where she had lived with her parents (which would be passed to her once she turned 21, anyway.) she would somehow be able to survive. But she never reached there. She was caught by a police officer and brought back to her foster parents. Because of the trouble (in their minds anyway )that she had given them, Persephone’s foster parents asked to no longer take care of her. They were granted their request.

Persephone was quickly picked up as a slightly bruised (mentally and emotionally anyway) but still adorable 12 year old. She had gotten a bit better at hiding her “strangeness” but not much. Her new foster parents liked that about as much as the last ones had. They seemed to be trying, though. They would buy her presents. (She didn’t like any of them, but she appreciated the thought.) They would take her to shows. (She didn’t like those either.) But eventually they stopped being nice. Their “niceness” had been their way of trying to bribe Persephone into being more “normal”, into being the perfect, conventional, conformist daughter that they wanted. But Persephone still could not be anyone but who she was.

Her new foster parents added physical scars as well as new mental and emotional ones. Persephone would often cry herself to sleep at night, thinking of her parents, her real parents, and the stories they used to tell her of the other Persephone, the one she’s named after, watching over her. Those stories and good memories of her parents were all that kept her going. Especially once the dreams started. Most likely from the stress of the situation, she started having nightmares about her parents’ deaths. Although she obviously hadn’t witnessed them, her active imagination was more than happy to provide examples of what they had looked like. Everything was too much. So Persephone ran away again. Again she was caught and brought back to her foster parents. They also wanted nothing more to do with her. (Though she was glad about that. She wanted nothing more to do with them either.)

TRIGGERING SECTION OVER!

She was 14 by this time and the chances of her finding new foster parents weren’t that high. But she did. Maybe it was her baby face. Or maybe it was just the right time and the right people. You know what they say: third time’s the charm. Her new foster parents were lovely people. They were very conventional and didn’t always understand Persephone’s nonconformist ways, yet they respected them. Instead of seeing her as strange, they saw her as unique. Instead of seeing her as broken, they saw her as healing. She was a breath of fresh air to them. It took Persephone a while to trust them, but after being with them for a year and six months, she began to be able to.

It was then, when Persephone was 15, when her third foster parents adopted her officially. They continued to — and still continue to — treat her kindly. They may not understand her the way her parents did, but they always respect her and always treat her well. They also helped her by getting her a therapist to help her deal with the still present grief from her parents’ deaths as well as the abuse she suffered at her two other foster homes.

Today, Persephone is still living with her adoptive parents. She is in college studying English Literature with a minor in Creative Writing. She isn’t sure what career she wants yet, but she knows she’d love to write. She is slowly healing from her past. She is building a closer relationship with her adoptive parents. She has friends. Overall, her life is good.

STORIES.