If Charles genes were messed up, the Jody’s were perfect and strong enough to overcome them because their first born daughter came into the world a perfectly healthy bundle of joy on December 4th 1983, thrilling both her parents. She was quickly dubbed Lainey Caxon, the apple of her parents eye, and it’s this innocent infant that our story focuses on.

The first few years of her life were quite unremarkable, any mistakes her father might’ve made were quickly corrected by her mother who doted on the child and when Jody became pregnant again, the entire house was filled with nothing but enthusiasm as the couple eagerly anticipated another easy birth and little Lainey just wanted her sister to play with. Sadly, this is where the storybook happiness ended as the pregnancy became difficult and when [Open] was born early, there was a mass of complications which Lainey didn’t understand. All she knew is she wasn’t allowed to touch her baby sister and her happy mother was beginning to fray at the edges. This was due to the alcohol the woman turned to for comfort, which in the end, caused more damage than good.

It didn’t take long for the stress of dealing with her daughters health problems, the medical bills that kept building up, the pressures of a toddler who still demanded attention, and the battle with her own desires for a drink completely overwhelmed Jody and one day she just up and walked out the door, not even leaving a note behind to tell her family good-bye. Just a lot of stories, whispered from neighbor to neighbor behind their hands as they spoke of their pity for the mentally unhinged father and his daughters, aged 3 and 5. When the girls began asking for their mother, Charles made up stories about aliens and monsters and ghosts. Outrageous things that overtime, he came to believe himself. The girls did too, for a few years, until stories from the neighborhood began to leak back to them via overheard conversations and other kids who reported what their parents said.

It was a struggle for many years as the girls tried to rely on their dad to take care of them, but the man was just incapable. He could barely even take care of himself after all. The girls often went to school in dirty clothes and food became scarce towards the end of the month as money ran out, the threat of CPS hung over their heads more than once. Shortly before Lainey turned twelve, the whole story was spilled to the girls by a friends’ mom of what really happened with her own mother and the girls decided between the two of them that they would protect each other and their father, no matter what it took.

Between the two of them, they learned everything they needed to know; cooking, laundry, cleaning, and even how to run the household finances. They kept an eye on their father and kept the rest of the world from seeing how far his mind had degraded over time. Being the oldest, Lainey fell into the mother role as best she could, sometimes going without just to make sure her sister didn’t have to. She also studied hard in school, determined to get good grades. If they were struggling to pay the bills every month, there was no way there’d be money for college. She even supervised her sister’s homework to make sure it was done, so they’d both every chance for a good life, and tried to instill the morals her dad wasn’t able to share.

After graduation, Lainey was offered a full academic scholarship to Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, allowing her to attend school while taking care of her family. Once her sister left for college, she continued to care for her dad on her own. Four years later, at the age of 22, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and got a job as a manager at a local store for experience and to save up money. It was during this time that Lainey met a guy and fell in love, then quickly out of love. In less than 2 years, she was engaged, married, and divorced. Talk about becoming a statistic. Having trust issues from her mother’s abandonment, the man of her dreams walking out only deepened the scars. Despite this, she tries to maintain a cheerful outlook, although this is often veiled by heavy sarcasm.

In 2008, Lainey’s dreams finally managed to come true. Between her own savings and a bank loan, she managed to lease a space in a mini-mall and opened Music Palooza, an all service music shop that has become her entire life. It’s a struggle to keep things afloat in this economy, but she’s used to pinching pennies and often works the counter herself to save money. Having loyal customers don’t hurt either. Considering her roots, Lainey feels pretty darn good about how far she’s managed to come in her life.