Olivia Chandler’s latest client is eleven-year-old Rena Averest.
Rena and her parents were involved in a weather-related, multi-car accident. Her mother was killed and her father was severely injured and comatose for several weeks, and remains hospitalized indefinitely.
Rena suffered extensive injuries and was also hospitalized for several weeks. When she was well enough to be discharged, the hospital ran into major obstacles. Her mother’s only living relative was an older brother who lived two thousand miles away. Suffering with chronic cystic fibrosis, he was unable to care for Rena, and had in fact, even missed his sister’s funeral. Rena has grandparents, two uncles, and an aunt on her father’s side of the family…and they want absolutely nothing to do with her.
An extremely benevolent judge, taking into account all that Rena is currently dealing with, allows her to be placed temporarily with Courtney and Marissa Bellamy, friends of her parents since college, and Rena’s godparents. Not knowing how her father’s medical situation will resolve itself, the judge feels Rena needs the stability and familiarity of the Bellamy home. The Department of Children’s Services disagrees and take legal action to remove Rena from the Bellamy home and place her in foster care. The presiding judge, spurred on by the irony of DCS wanting to remove Rena Averest from a non-relative home only to place her in a non-relative home, stays the case and appoints a child advocate attorney to research the case and protect Rena’s interest.
And that’s exactly what Olivia intends to do.
Rena Irene Averest
Age: 11
DOB: May 6, 2003
Parents: Duncan and Irene Averest
Siblings: None
Favorite color: Yellow
Favorite music: Todrick Hall and all songs Disney-related
Favorite Book: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Pets: A turtle named Brutus
BFF: Margie Macy
Wants to be a surgical nurse when she grows up