In Bloom
Born to a florist and a singer, Lyla Heartilly grew up in the poorer part of the city in a small home that barely fit the family of three. In that sense, it was lucky that both of her parents worked long hours at different jobs, often leaving her home alone. When not in school, she spent plenty of time outside at the park entertaining herself.

Her father, a survivor of a past abusive relationship and an honorably discharged military veteran, suffered PTSD toward quick movements and loud sounds. To calm himself, he often took comfort in baking and it was something Lyla joined him in. He also ran a small flower shop in the neighborhood. Her mother, who seemed tired often, always made sure Lyla knew she was loved.

Tragedy
[parent death tw]
In primary and middle school, Lyla had average grades and often preferred to be socializing rather than studying. To her, it was sad to return to an empty home and she avoided it for as long as she could. Most of the time this meant hanging out with friends after school but they didn’t always get into legal activities. Around the time she was sixteen, she and her friends were caught doing something illegal and all were given community service time. The stress of it weighed on her family, particularly her mother, and one day she disappeared.

They found her three days later in her car having suffered a stroke.

Guilt consumed Lyla. Her father, who had never received adequate treatment for his PTSD from either the veteran’s services or any health facility due to their lack of health insurance, began a downward spiral from there.

She did her best to take care of them both, always smiling so as to not make her father even sadder, but nothing she did ever felt like enough. To get them some extra money, her father was forced to sell his flower shop.

Reality
After graduating from high school, Lyla continued living with her father, taking care of him while searching for jobs. He encouraged her to go to college, but she knew they couldn’t afford it and that she had never excelled at school. For a while, she worked different odd jobs to make ends meet. Having lost her mother, she felt beholden to taking care of her father.

When one of her friends got married, Lyla was more than happy to help with the planning and decoration process. During it, one of the attendants - a wedding planner - noted her skills and offered her to come in for an interview. It was a job she stayed at for many years, eventually moving past assistant and into her own role as an event planner.

Happily Ever Gone
Around this time was when she met Jacob. It was a hurried meeting amid a wedding she was working, which meant little time to actually talk. Afterward, he asked her out to drinks, and she was so tired she nodded off mid-drink. Thankfully, he didn’t mind. Despite her hectic schedule, the two found time to continue seeing each other. They would eventually start dating and Jacob would propose.

It was all a whirlwind of events that she never expected to happen. One moment she was planning the weddings of others and now she was planning her own. They began to live together but as time went by, the date of their wedding drawing close, little fights over small things, disagreements in their lifestyle and goals, slowly came to light. With the wedding less than a couple months away and so many things paid for, Lyla made the hard decision to call it off. Jacob, though shocked, also felt they’d been leading up to this moment. Afterward, Lyla realized she’d been a toned down version of herself while they were together.

[parent death tw]
Sometime after that, her father passed away from natural causes, and between her hectic job, her continued heartbreak, and preparing for his funeral, Lyla resigned from her job. She moved out of her childhood home to a small town for a fresh start where she could re-open her father's dream of a flower shop.