Ashley

July 2030

Ashley and Allyn Pitts are 70

With birthdays within a couple of months of each other, Ashley and Allyn Pitts had always marked the occasion together. This year however, despite having reached the milestone of 70, Ashley found he weren't really in the mood for a celebration.

Part of the reason was probably that not all their children would be able to be there. Although their children had all left home some years ago, in the past few months they'd had to adjust to almost a  second 'empty nest'. 

Shortly before graduation, Joshua had told them that he was moving with his new girlfriend to Salmon Woods. 

If Three Lakes was the best place to start his career as an artist, then Ashley would accept that, but he'd been looking forward to having his youngest living nearby again. 

"It'll give you an excuse to come here on vacation," Joshua had said. Maybe it would, but AJ had said exactly the same thing, when he'd told them he was taking up a two year secondment to Sunlit Tides on Twiki Island. The hospital had provided a house right on the beach, he said, and there was plenty of room for visitors.

It was a great opportunity for AJ and Ana to live in what was usually a vacation spot, and for their daughters to experience a lifestyle very different to the city. But it was still disappointing to have both sons move away in the space of a year.

They also wondered about the point of celebrating when, milestone birthday or not, life went on as always. They enjoyed their lifestyle, with an apartment in the centre of the city and friends nearby.

Allyn had retired from her job as a scientist a couple of years ago. 

She was enjoying the free time to work on her little garden plot, in the yard behind their apartment building.

Ashley had also long retired from full time work. Even after stepping down as Chief of Staff of the major hospital in Redwood City, he'd continued to work some shifts in the emergency room. He'd stopped that now, too, although he hadn't completely stepped away from medicine. 

Under the auspices of the hospital, he ran occasional free clinics in community centres, schools out of hours, churches, places like that. His clients were usually people in low income jobs or jobless, students, and... his twin sister Jami?

A famous and wealthy actor and former dancer, Jami was the last person who would need to use a free clinic. As it happened, she said, she wasn't there for treatment. She had been in the neighborhood at a yoga class and decided to come along to support her "little" (by 5 minutes) brother.

At least she hadn't been followed by the paparazzi. As it was, no one at the clinic seemed to even recognise her. Even at 70, Jami would be upset to know that the current generation of movie goers think of her as an 'old time actress', but today, at least, it saved Ashley from having to deal with the disruption she was apparently unaware she could have caused.

He tried to at least appreciate the thought. Jami was busy, after all - she still spent a significant amount of time in front of the camera, or behind it as a director. 

She'd recently married her third husband, a producer named Brandon Kriesler, and she also seemed to be forever tackling problems with her staff. Although if what she'd told him was true, the most recent maid really did have a problem with appropriate boundaries.

In the end, Ashley had simply thanked her for her "support" and got on with his work. There were plenty of patients to see and only a couple of hours to get through them, after all.

With the clinic over, Ashley went home to finish packing. He and Allyn had indeed booked a vacation, but it wasn't to Three Lakes or Twikki Island. A significant birthday called for a significant trip, they had decided. They would be spending some time in China.

Shang Simla was beautiful, but so much walking!

It was usually worth it, though. These were sights they wouldn't get to see any other way.

"I was sure the guide book said there was a shorter route... "

They hired bicycles, but even then a lot of the places they wanted to visit were only accessible on foot.

At least the town centre was reasonably compact

It was a bit sad to see signs of westernization, even in a place this far away

The shops were interesting and they got some nice souvenirs, and some gifts for people back home.

Back at the hotel, they had lunch with some fellow tourists,

...and got a recommendation for a nearby museum

The next day, another walk...

"This view is amazing... "

"Yeah, sure, give me a minute... "

The heated pools in town were much appreciated. Allyn had been a bit reluctant to swim in what looked more like a decorative pool than one made for swimming, but Ashley assured her that he'd seen locals and tourists alike in them..

In the end she didn't regret it

Some more last minute shopping...

...  then it was time to head to the airport...

And so their birthday was memorable after all, lots of fun, lots of walking, and some new decorations for their apartment, to keep the memories alive.

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My first Shang Simla vacation - it's a beautiful world but good lord, is it spread out! Using a mod, I ended up teleporting them from lot to lot because we were never going to see anything if I waited for them to get anywhere on foot or by bike.

The other first here is the first elders of their generation, the grandchildren of my founding family. Ashley, Jami and Allyn are all elders now, along with Jami's ex-husband Randy London. In TS2 I used to age sims up at 65 but its easier to do a kind of gradual aging in TS3, with aging facial sliders, and I think the other signs of age you see in elder sims (slightly stooped, slower gait, etc) are more suited to a 70+ year old. 

This is one of my biggest generations, so there are going to be a lot of elders around here in a few sim years. If anyone is wondering, I've set up aging so that sims will die of old age between ages 80 and 101. I let the game decide, with two exceptions - Ben Green and Brandi Green. Both were elders in TS2 before I changed games, and I knew how much time that game had given them. So I will keep that in the new game.