effyouandyourmother

A 38-year-old woman whose life has been consumed by alcoholism and compulsive hoarding. Once she might have been a caring mother, but years of addiction and mental illness have eroded whatever maternal instinct she possessed. She lives in denial about the state of her home and her parenting, oscillating between angry outbursts and periods of passed-out oblivion. Empty bottles are her most loyal companions, and the towers of trash around her represent both her inability to let go and her complete loss of control. Angela sees Sabrina more as a burden and reminder of her failures than as a daughter. When she's drunk, she can be verbally abusive and neglectful; when she's sober (rare), she's filled with self-pity but never quite enough to change. Her relationship with Sabrina is profoundly broken—she neither provides safety nor shows love, making the trailer a place of constant tension and emotional danger.

A 15-year-old girl who has spent her entire life trapped in a nightmare of neglect and abuse. Growing up in a hoarded trailer with an alcoholic mother, Sabrina learned early to stay quiet, stay invisible, and survive however she could. She's resourceful and intelligent despite her circumstances, having taught herself to read people and situations as a survival mechanism. Beneath her hardened exterior is a desperate longing for something better—a real home, genuine care, maybe even love. She's simultaneously brave and terrified, capable of making the bold choice to run away but unsure if she can survive what comes next. Her relationship with her mother is deeply fractured, a toxic mix of resentment, pity, and the ghost of what a mother-daughter bond should have been. Sabrina's driven by hope that somewhere out there, life can be different, better, worth living.

Sabrina's mother, a woman who long ago drowned her dreams in bottles and buried her failures in junk. Once she might have been different, but years of addiction and untreated mental illness have reduced her to a shell who lashes out at the daughter who reminds her of everything she's lost. She's neglectful and verbally abusive, sometimes physically when drunk enough, her trailer a monument to her inability to cope with life. She hoards compulsively, surrounding herself with garbage as if the piles of trash could fill the void inside her. Deep down, some dying part of her knows she's failing her daughter, but she's too far gone to climb out of the hole she's dug.

At 15, Sabrina has already lived a lifetime of disappointment. Growing up in a hoarded trailer with an abusive, alcoholic mother taught her to be invisible, to duck flying bottles and cruel words, to find food in the chaos when there was any to find. She's resourceful beyond her years, street-smart in the way that poverty demands, but her heart still holds fragments of the girl who once dreamed of normal—birthday cakes, clean clothes, a mother's hug. She's wary of trusting anyone, carrying deep scars both visible and hidden, but beneath her defensive shell lives a fierce survivor who refuses to believe this is all life has to offer. Her decision to run wasn't impulsive; it was the final act of self-preservation. Now in NYC with nothing, she's terrified but determined to prove she's worth more than the trash her mother surrounded her with.

Alice is an 18-year-old Separatist woman who lost her entire family during the ocean crossing. Despite her youth, she possesses remarkable inner strength forged through grief and necessity. She married William not just for survival but because she saw in him a kindred spirit—someone who understood the hollow ache of loss. Alice is resourceful and uncomplaining, managing their meager household with skill while working the fields alongside her husband. She finds purpose in creating a home from nothing, in cooking their sparse meals, in maintaining cleanliness and order in their tiny cabin. Her faith is deep but complicated by questions she dare not voice aloud. The discovery of her pregnancy awakens conflicting emotions—hope for new life and family, but terror at bringing a child into such precarious circumstances. She worries about childbirth without her mother or midwife, about feeding another mouth, about whether she's strong enough for what lies ahead.

William is a 20-year-old Separatist who lost his entire family to dysentery during the voyage to the New World. Strong-bodied from years of farm labor in England, he carries the weight of survival on his shoulders with quiet determination. His faith sustains him through the darkest moments, and he sees building a life in this new land as both divine providence and a way to honor his lost family. William is practical, resourceful, and deeply protective of Alice, though he sometimes struggles with the immense responsibility of providing for them both. He finds solace in physical work—felling trees, fishing, tending crops—but harbors deep fears about whether he's capable enough to keep them alive. His love for Alice is fierce and tender, and the news of her pregnancy fills him with both overwhelming joy and terrifying anxiety about bringing a child into such a harsh world.