Keira Ray Wells

Fragile- Physically Keira is a fragile person who struggles with health problems and tries to power through them. Due to this fragility she is often on her toes and thinking twice of every decision she is being made. She also has a low self esteem, finding mostly flaws in herself and wondering if anyone could ever want her with all of her baggage while she continues to struggle with her ideas of what the world wants from her and who she is supposed to be while struggling with the guilt of her being the one who was able to leave the hospital while her sister is left behind.

Growing up it had just been Keira, her sister Lana and their mother. The girls father had passed away a few years after Keira had been born so the three of them were extremely close, doing everything together. Both Keira and Lana were medically fragile girls, often going in and out of the hospital with multiple ailments as their mother tended to their needs the best that she could, which mean twenty-four hour care, which meant she couldn't take on a job. The three had to live in low income housing but were happy though with the girls health always being in jeopardy they weren't allowed to go play with the other kids in the neighborhood or go to school, meaning their mother not only took care of them she always homeschooled them and acted as their protector and for a long time their neighbors tended to forget that the family existed unless they caught their Mom leaving their apartment.

For a majority of their early lives this didn't bother the girls. They believed they were too sick to go into the world and didn't mind being curled up in bed or on the couch watching cartoons because a lot of the time they didn't have the sheer energy to do anything more than this. Even though their mother did her best to provide there rarely seemed to be food, the family having to survive on one meal a day and even though they were hungry the girls didn't complain, they didn't want to add the extra burden onto their mother though as time went on it got harder for them to hide the hunger pains and the increasing weakness until the day came where they couldn't.


One morning everything seemed to crash around them. Keira woke up, barely able to open her eyes and for a second it felt like she hadn't. Everything was so blurry she could barely see the texture in their apartments ceiling and it made her panic, she had tried to reach out but couldn't muster the energy to lift her hand, which only increased the panic. Keira could barely recognize her voice as she called for her sister though no matter how many times she had called for her she didn't get a response from Lana, instead their mother had rushed in to find both of her girls barely responsive to her prodding and forcing her to call 911, which is what truly destroyed whatever normal was in their lives.

Keira and Lana had been taken into the hospital and treated for severe malnutrition while their mother was taken aside and questioned about how things had gotten to this severity because, on the outside, this was a severe case of neglect that required a CPS investigation. Keira was kept in the dark about the majority of what was going on, being forced to stay in her own hospital room while she was being treated. Any questions she had were answered carefully as to not cause distress but as Keira started to regain her strength and the investigation was getting deeper she was finally able to meet with her newly assigned social worker who told her that her mother was suffering from something called Munchausen by Proxy where she intentionally made her daughters ill for attention and control but had gotten so severe in her treatment that both girls had gotten near deaths door and that both she and her sister were going to have long lasting effects from their malnutrition. Keira was told that the vision in her left eye was never going to return, that her growth was stunted and that she would remain at a height of barely four foot nine, and that she had a few cognitive delays while her older sister was in a medically induced coma due to the severity of her health. Keira was stunned by this information and it took her a long time and a lot of counseling to cope. Her entire life had been manipulated and controlled by one of the people she was supposed to be able to trust and now she had no idea where her life was going.

While she still recovered in the hospital she engaged in counseling and tutoring and eventually...the courts ordered supervised visitation with her mother. Meeting with her mother while another person watched them left Keira in silence. When she saw her mom all she felt was a mix of hatred and still love because that is the woman who raised her and they did have great times together but with all the truth and knowing her sister was barely hanging onto life made her fill with anger. On the day she was able to leave the hospital Keira went into a foster home with a very kind lady who took things slow with her, gaining her trust day by day as Keira worked through all of her therapies, visits with her mom, and visiting her sister in the hospital, which was exhausting but eventually Keira did warm up to her foster mother, finding her as one of the few people she could rely on besides her social worker.

It did take Keira long to recover and adjust, especially with losing the sight in one eye, but eventually she reached the point where she could enroll in school and take a few steps towards being normal. With Tidewater being the closest school Keira was able to enroll and even gets to live in a dorm, though often has to check in with her foster mother and her social worker to ensure that she is still able t to care for herself. Keira often has to leave her classes early so she can go to counseling or to go to her weekly visit with her mom, which often makes her feel like she's different than everyone else and makes it hard for her to connect with others but she's trying her best. She wants to show her sister, who is now awake but still admitted to the hospital, that she is doing her best to obtain a normal life so that Lana doesn't have to worry about her and can look forward to the day that she can leave the hospital and start her own normal life as well.