What's in a Name?

Lois Geraldine Quigley

Lois Geraldine Quigley- Irish-American ancestry; Lois is a loving, but stern suburban grandmother who chose to reside within the Quigley household while helping her widowed son Callum look after his children, Hannah and Liam. A war veteran and skilled combatant, she is an empathetic and understanding person who is willing to place trust in her loved ones and take the time to wrap her head around something. Patient and dependable, she often serves as the straitlaced voice of reason among her family and friends, reining them in whenever they tend toward the absurd. She is humble, but cheerful and generally seen as a wise, kind, and supportive friend to everyone she encounters and known for her sharp wit. Lois has a strong moral center and is not afraid to stand up when she sees something wrong, having once befriended a bear that was loose in the city according to legend. She is a strong supporter of many humanitarian causes, including local cancer charities in memory of her late daughter-in-law Lilly McGee, and described herself as a feminist in her youth. Her son claims that he knows everyone through the people-watching game, a game that she is apparently not good at because she lacks creativity. The Quigley family congratulated her for finally telling a good story however once Callum realized her true inspiration came from her family. Lois tries to maintain an openminded demeanor when first encountering unfamiliar faces and generally refuses to form strong opinions on others until proven otherwise, a personal value that she would pass on to Callum and much of her family. As a former school bus driver who worked odd jobs, including one at the front desk for Brighton Hills, a local nursing home and another as a forklift operator at a frozen foods warehouse, she believes in the value of hard work and highly esteems those who show humility and perseverance. 

Despite sharing modest living conditions with her late husband, a sanitation worker named Keith who passed on at the age of 68 due to complications from a colostomy, she had a happy marriage with him nonetheless until his death. She was a doting wife and mother and tended to distribute love to each of her four children equally, often serving as the mediator between her surly, bad-tempered younger son Niall and the equally outspoken Callum in their ongoing sibling rivalry. Lois is actually a rebellious person who generally wants to do whatever she wants, as she is quite stubborn and energetic for her age. She is a rather strict and tough old woman, and while she can be mean at times, she still deeply cares for her family and will put them before anything else. She just wants Hannah to grow up and be like her, but realizes that Hannah is becoming a woman in her own right and usually comes around to letting her do her own thing. Her behavior is thought to have originated from her childhood, and she was shown to have freckles and curly brown hair in her youth. Lois was also a frequent mentor towards her daughters Denise and Brigitte and tried to serve as a strong role model for them both as they approached adolescence and young womanhood. Although she can be an authoritative, disciplinary figure when she needs to be, she still has a much more lighthearted, humorous side to her demeanor. She admits to Hannah that she played Stupefyin' Jones for her school's Sadie Hawkins dance, and how her push-up bra seemingly caught on fire in the dryer. A lively and vivacious woman, she enjoys interacting with an extended group of older friends in her spare time and is known to be exceptionally good at bingo, being the second-best player in all of Valley Stream. 

Lois claims that her son Callum took part in the Hacky Sack National Championship in 1998, which was then featured in the Tuesday Gazette. She gave Liam a lemon lollipop with an encased bug in it as a "gag gift"  in exchange for a Chocolate Santa once they were paired off during their annual Christmas party when he was in the 1st grade. Volunteering also bonds her family together, as Lois would unite them every year before her Lilly's passing to visit the nursing home, especially during the holidays. Like her granddaughter, she admits she can't stay upset at anyone for too long and loves to be helpful, whether through volunteering to lead her local scout troop or rescuing rejected pets. When Lois was 7 years old, none of the crops grew due to a lack of rain for months, and thus her father threatened to have the farm, which included a sheep named Marjorie sold and the house to be destroyed. In her desire to not give up, she tried to dig up a lot of holes and ward off aphids, but when it seems she had lost all hope, one of her apple seeds began to sprout. Realizing there was still some water, she uses the loader that is to destroy the house to dig a hole next to the sprouting, where a huge spout of water bursts out of the hole. The farm was saved, which led her father to decide to put their new well in the same place where she had first found the water. Lois also has an eccentric side and can be quite superstitious, claiming that she can predict many outcomes that turn out to be strangely accurate. She secretly believes she is psychic, as she can make a special brew out of different sugars and spices to freeze with the name of their enemies, such as Chip Adriano to fight off negative vibes. She has been depicted as frugal and even stingy on occasion, since she goes to extreme lengths to save money, including sleeping so she doesn't waste oxygen or skipping meals to save food.