twilight fact file

esme cullen

Esme Cullen

Esme Cullen (born Esme Anne Platt, previously Evenson, born 1895) is the matriarch of the Olympic coven. She is the wife of Carlisle Cullen and the adoptive mother of Alice, Emmett, Edward Cullen, Rosalie and Jasper Hale. Esme is also the adoptive mother-in-law of Bella Swan, and the adoptive grandmother of Renesmee Cullen. She was previously married to Charles Evenson as a human.

In 1921, after losing her baby to lung fever, Esme attempted suicide, but her attempt was unsuccessful. Later, Carlisle transformed her into a vampire on her deathbed. Some time later, the pair fell in love and married, starting to build a family of like-minded vegetarian vampires around them. Esme possessed an unparalleled capacity for passionate love for those around her, which allowed the members of her adoptive family to consider her as the greatest maternal figure in their lives. She is the oldest Cullen in appearance by three years (though Jasper, Edward and Carlisle are older as they were transformed earlier in their lives.)

Esme Anne Platt was born in 1895. She grew up on a farm on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, where she had a very happy childhood. As a teenager, her playful, mischievous nature often got her into trouble. At the age of 16, she fell out of a tree, and broke her leg.  Since the local doctor was out of town, she was treated by Dr. Carlisle Cullen. He moved out of town not long after that, but Esme never forgot the kind doctor with whom she had gotten along so well. Initially wanting to move west to become a school teacher, she was pressured by her parents to stay and marry. At the age of 22, in an attempt to please her parents, she married Charles Evenson, but she soon realized her husband was an abusive man. Her family urged her to keep quiet about the abuse, and Esme had no choice but to endure it. Much to her relief, her husband was drafted during World War I, finally giving her some peace.

Esme enjoyed a happy period of time while Charles was away, but when Charles returned in 1919, the abuse returned with him. Sometime after his return, Esme found out that she was pregnant. Not wanting her child to grow up in such a dangerous home, she ran away to her cousin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When Charles found her whereabouts, she ran away again, this time to Ashland and posed as a war widow. In order to support herself, she became a school teacher, temporarily fulfilling her childhood dream. The child was born in 1921, only to die from lung fever 2 days later. Esme was devastated. After the baby's death, Esme felt that she no longer had any reason to live, and attempted suicide by jumping off a cliff. When she was found, her condition was so bad that they didn't even attempt to revive her. She was immediately brought to the morgue, although her heart was still beating faintly. Dr. Cullen was working in the area at the time, and recognized her as the happy, beautiful young girl he treated 10 years earlier. Esme regained consciousness in excruciating pain, but she was happy to see Carlisle again. In order to save her life, Carlisle decided to change her into a vampire.