It was the day after Independence Day when Tiare(Tee-Ar-EE) Marie Rousseau came into this world a healthy seven pounds, nine ounces and it was on that same day that her mother, Monique Rousseau, left this world. Three hours after giving birth to her first daughter, she suffered a stroke and died shortly after. The family of Monique didn’t quite understand how a healthy twenty year old could possibly die of a stroke and not even her doctors could understand it. She left behind her baby daughter, who she had named only an hour before passing away. Her family believed the stress of giving birth and the loss of her daughter's father a few months before was the reason for the stroke. Tiare’s grandmother and grandfather were given custody of their new granddaughter.
From the day Tiare was taken home from the hospital, she was coddled by her extremely overprotective grandmother. The death of her daughter had her determined to never let anything bad happen to the only piece of her daugher she had left. As a result, she kept Tiare away from anything that could possibly harm her and that included other people. One would think a little baby growing up so isolated would end up shy and introverted, but that wasn’t the case even if her grandmother seemed to do everything in her power to make things that way. When Tiare was old enough to go to pre-school or a daycare to be around other children her age, her grandmother was completely against the idea. If it wasn’t for her grandfather, then she never would have had the chance to socialize with children her own age.
The older Tiare got, the more overprotective and controlling her grandmother seemed to become. She wasn’t allowed to go outside and play with the friends she met at school who lived close by; she wasn’t allowed to go to their birthday parties if she was invited to them and if she wanted to go outside at all it was confined to the backyard. Every once in awhile her grandmother would find a way to make Tiare feel as much guilt as possible that her mother died after giving birth to her. To this day she wonders if it was intentional or if it was just her grandmother’s grief doing the talking. Either way, she put on a mask early on so when she was hurting on the inside; she looked perfectly okay on the outside.
Tiare’s teenage years seemed to be the hardest to get through when it came to her grandmother’s control and anger. What she had gone through when she was younger was nothing compared to when she hit her teens. The fights they would have often resulted in Tiare sneaking out of her bedroom window and walking around downtown Tampa with a bunch of her friends, who were far too old to actually be her friends. By fifteen she was drinking, smoking pot, and popping whatever pill she could get her hands on to numb the things going on inside of her head. The mask she put on for people always worked. She was the girl who always seemed to be ready to have a good time; the first one to crack a joke and make everyone around her laugh. On the inside, however, she’d replay every hurtful thing her grandmother would say it her; ”Your mother would still be here if it wasn’t for you!” Her grandfather passes away shortly after her 16th birthday and Ti felt as though she lost her only close family member; the one who was always on her side.
At seventeen Tiare met her first boyfriend, Jake, who she kept a secret from her grandmother for as long as she could manage it. He was twenty years old and working as an apprenticing tattoo artist in a shop in downtown Tampa. She was smitten with him from day one, but found herself in love with him after six months of dating. Unsure of her feelings had her question herself over and over before she even told him how she felt. He was perfect in her eyes and, in the beginning, he made her feel like the most perfect girl in the entire world. That first year he spoke of her like she could do no wrong in his eyes, but it didn’t take long for things to start to change. He began to get controlling; telling her who she could talk to and who she couldn’t talk to, where she could go, what she could wear. Tiare got enough of that from her grandmother and she didn’t understand why Jake had changed so suddenly.
Sometimes love makes people do things that isn’t really like them. Tiare accepted Jake controlling her because she loved him and because if she didn’t have him to lean on, she felt like she didn’t really have anybody. There were a few people she could call “friends”, sure, but she wasn’t in love with them. Jake’s control quickly turned into emotional abuse, but Tiare continued to endure it and she didn’t know why. She was eighteen when she had finally stood up to her grandmother and moved out, but why couldn’t she do the same with Jake? It took her until she was nineteen to finally stick up for herself and to reach that point of being tired of his abuse. She took with her valuable lessons about being in relationships and about herself. She was better than what Jake or her grandmother said she was.
Though she had cut Jake out of her life, the lifestyle he instilled in her was one she couldn’t quite let go of. Weekend trips down to Miami Beach with friends, drinking, partying, and just doing everything in her power to drown out the voice inside of her head and that guilt she still felt over her mother’s death. She had a job working as a piercer at the same tattoo shop where Jake worked, but he had left to open his own shop in another part of town and she almost never saw him. She shared an apartment with two of her closest friends and things felt the way she figured they should feel. Still, she was getting a little tired of living in Florida and since she really had nothing there that was worth staying for, so she felt as though it were time for a change of scenery. The only time she spoke to her grandmother was to check in on her and that was always a quick conversation since Tiare didn’t stay on the phone long enough for her grandmother to start anything with her.
In early 2010, Tiare got a call on her cell phone from her aunt letting her know that her grandmother had passed away from a heart attack. She felt sad despite the way her grandmother treated her. The woman had taken care of her until she was eighteen years old, so she allowed herself to feel that sadness, but she never shed a tear. A week after the funeral, Tiare was contacted by her grandmother’s lawyer and was invited to the reading of her will. She didn’t even know her grandmother had a will and she didn’t know why she’d be included in it. At the reading she was shocked to hear that her grandmother left her everything. Her two living daughters seemed to be even more shocked than Tiare was; not to mention very, very angry.
The entire value of her grandmother’s estate came close to one million dollars; the price of her house, a life insurance policy, and all her belongings. Both Tiare’s aunts asked the lawyer if they could fight it in court, but it was made clear that everything was to go to Tiare and no one else. At twenty years old she had no idea what she was supposed to do with over nine hundred thousand dollars, but what she did know was that she didn’t want to go crazy with it. In fact, she didn’t want to spend it at all and her reason being was because she felt like it was her grandmother’s way of telling her that she’d never make it on her own. Even in death she wanted to belittle Tiare or that’s how it felt, anyway. So she put every cent of her grandmother’s money into a savings account and that’s where she planned on leaving it.
Boston, Massachusetts was on the top of Tiare’s list of places she wanted to live, so that was where she planned on going. Everything she owned was packed up, a three bedroom apartment was put on hold in Beacon Hill, and she drove her car the entire way with a U-Haul trailer hooked up to the back of it. Taking her first week to get settled, she did some sightseeing, and got familiar with her surroundings before she began putting in applications at tattoo and piercing places around the greater Boston area. After a few places seemed interested in hiring her, she chose the one that stood out the most to her; Stingray Body Art in Allston. With a piercing job secured, she was able to focus on settling into her new life in Boston.
Now five years later and twenty-five years old, Tiare can actually say that she feels good where she is in her life. She continues to be the social butterfly her grandmother never wanted her to be, she has a new roommate, she’s successful in her own right, and she did it all without touching a cent of her grandmother’s money.
Tiare is as outgoing as they come, but her thirst to experience all that life has to offer seemed to double after she left Tampa. She doesn’t like to take things too seriously and frowns upon people who are so “by the book” all the time. For the most part she’s usually in a good mood, but she does have her moments. When that happens she usually keeps to herself until the mood passes. She's very quick to judge people, which has either proven to be a good thing or a bad thing. When something is bothering her, she’ll either say something or keep it to herself if she doesn’t think it’s worth mentioning. One to internalize her anger, she often explodes when she can't take it anymore and has gotten into many fights because of it. She considers herself to be a good listener and a very loyal friend. Tiare can’t stand being lied to and, therefore, doesn’t lie herself. She’ll come right out with something she did wrong and expects her friends to be the same way.
- Loves to experiment in the kitchen and is often baking and/or cooking.
- Loves horror movies and anything that has to do with horror in general.
- Still occasionally smokes weed and will pop an Ecstasy pill if she’s going to a rave or a club.
- Has only been in two serious relationships and both relationships gave her much more drama than she could ever want, so she tries to keep things as casual as possible.
- Ti doesn’t watch too much television, but when she does it’s mostly The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Witness, Bob’s Burgers, and True Blood.