Age:     36
MA       20
PB:      22
Height:  5'7
Weight:  145 lbs


Eyes:  Brown
Hair:  Black (shaved)
Alignment: Scrupulous

Disposition:  A little sarcastic but professional. Fun and warm once she relaxes and feels safe.

Background:

Lakeisha "Laney" Carmichael was born Lakeisha Marie Thibodeau in New Orleans, 1978, to Robert Thibodeau (a Vietnam veteran and NOPD officer) and Winnie Barnes (a Registered Nurse) and is the youngest of 3 sisters (Noelle and Aisha). Laney (as she was known from a young age) always wanted to go into medicine, but also felt like she wanted to be on the streets like her father. Being a paramedic satisfied both urges and she became one after graduating from university in Baton Rouge in 2003. She enjoyed the work and learned how to work effectively in a chaotic and overburdened medical system.

Like so many others in the "Big Easy", Hurricane Katrina had a profound effect on the lives of her family. Being middle class meant nothing after their parish flooded when the levee broke. Laney experienced a lot in those weeks, becoming a little burned out and jaded, especially with what she saw as the failures of the government to cope with disaster. Her father was heartbroken after seeing his beloved NOPD both betrayed by its worst elements and abandoned by everyone else. He was never the same after that, and retired as a Sergeant in 2007 after 30 years on the NOPD. He died of a heart attack in 2008.

Afterwards, she quit the ambulance service and slipped into a deep depression. This was eventually diagnosed as PTSD and with treatment, returned to school to continue her fine arts degree. She met her future husband Greg Carmichael afterhe returned from Iraq and they married in 2007. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Las Vegas when he resumed he career real estate, which he'd put aside to join the army after 9/11. After the housing market crashed, they struggled to get by and Laney returned to work, even though they'd hoped to start a family.

In 2012 Greg was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of cancer of the adrenal glands (adrenalcortical carcinoma). The VA seemed to be inexplicably dragging its heels, which caused his depression to spiral out of control. Greg took his life in early-2013, leaving her heavily in debt and stuck with a house with a mortgage that was far underwater. When the bank foreclosed there was no place to turn as his parents had passed away and her mother was living in an assisted-care facility in Louisiana, having shown signs of early-onset Alzheimer's Disease.

Before the virus hit, Laney was looking forward to her first permanent apartment in months. For the last 3 months Laney has been one of the "hidden homeless", staying with a coworker as a "temporary" roomate. Her hours with MedicWest Ambulance had been cut back, leaving her with little or no money for rent and scant hope of paying off her late husband's medical bills in her natural lifetime. If she couldn't find more permanent housing soon, Laney was seriously considering moving back to Louisiana to live with one of her sisters. Or back to living in her Bronco and showering at work, like she did for a month after the bank sent bailiffs to evict her. Feeling nervous about in effect living on the streets, she relied on Greg's Glock-22 pistol, which she knew how to use thanks to her daddy. (Things had gotten so bad she's considered selling off these last remnants of his collection which, as Greg was a hunter, includes a Remington 870 shotgun and scoped M700 hunting rifle, but luckily never needed to find a dealer or pawn shop to take them off her hands for far less than what they were worth.)

But she found that due to her job she could talk to and relate to the people on the streets, and never felt threatened, she made friends that looked out and protected her, and she did the same. Like most real poor people in America, she was not some cliched lazy "urban" "taker" but someone who was down on their luck and working hard to escape the trap of poverty without much help from what little remained of America's tattered social safety net. Laney was raised Episcopalian, and has felt thankful for what material assistance and spiritual aid the church could provide, although these days that's not saying much.

In her 20's, Laney had a child, Dashawndra, out of wedlock, with Ray, a New Orleans firefighter. She never married the father but kept on good terms with him. Happily, Greg got along well with his stepdaughter and they took Dashawndra with them when they moved to Nevada. Although he had never contested custody of his biological daughter, Ray (now living in Shreveport, LA) gladly and with great sympathy agreed to take her back after it became clear Laney was in considerable financial trouble and would temporarily be without a fixed address or, indeed, take care of financial matters. Dashawndra (now 10) currently is living with Ray and his family in Shreveport.








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