Maria Fíadh Fee

Maria in 1913

## Overview

Maria Fee was a fictional third class passenger in 2021. Played by Yellow Umbrella, she was a member of the Fee family, and survived. Maria was Yellow's first character for Titanic Voyage, and despite not really having a storyline of her own, managed to become a minor player in the Grenache Storyline.

## Bio

### Kilkenny

Maria Fíadh Fee was born on St. Thomas Square in Kilkenny, Ireland on December 8th, 1894 at 05:31 to Finnegan Fee II and Fiona MacKieran. Her uncle Flynn Fee, who lived with the family at the time, spent a lot more time with her than her father, and she ended up growing closer to him and her mother than with Finnegan Sr. She grew up helping around the house with her mother, and was there by her side when she gave birth to her brother in 1900. Two years later, Fiona would be killed when an English coachman lost control of one of his horses, which stampeded up the road and trampled the poor woman. Maria and her father watched in horror, young Finnegan in his father’s arms. Following Fiona’s death, uncle Flynn left the grieving family, moving out on his own to Belfast. Heartbroken after losing her two parental figures, Maria turned to the other girls in Kilkenny and her brother. Eventually, and rather suspiciously, Uncle Flynn returned home, and though Maria was overjoyed with the fact, she couldn't help but wonder why the change of heart. Throughout Maria’s late childhood, she always considered Uncle Flynn a great help to her father, and confided greatly in him in absence of her mother, even asking him to help her learn to read and write when she was 16, of which she’s still working on. As the Coal Strikes began, she noticed a change of mind in her father, and stayed up worried often with her uncle.

### Move to America

Eventually, Finnegan Sr. came home holding four papers, tickets to America aboard the soonest departing ship, RMS Titanic. They sold the home and headed for Queenstown, and Maria sought anything that might ground her in this changing world. She adopted her old toy rabbit from her childhood, of which her father didn’t quite approve.

As they arrived in Queenstown, the strikes ended in the miners favor, and Maria felt a range of emotions knowing that everything she once knew was being left behind due to a fruitless gamble. Regardless, here she was in Queenstown, just days before the vessel to her new life would arrive.

## Epilogue

### Recovery in New York City

When Carpathia docked in New York on the night of April 18th, Maria stepped foot onto dry land hand-in-hand with Ailsa. Father Cavill, a Catholic priest traveling aboard Carpathia, helped them through customs before bringing the two ladies to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in which he rented a room for the two of them. Maria would spend the ensuing week searching for her fathers cousins, whom he was planning on moving the family in with, while Ailsa tried to figure out what to do next. Maria was ultimately never able to find her cousins, a regret she held to the day she died.

Alongside Ailsa, Maria entered the Salvation Army shortly after their arrival in New York. Having really nowhere else to go, she found herself welcomed by the community and embraced it. Using a gift of money Catherine Littington, whom she made sure to visit, had given her before they disembarked Carpathia, Maria was able to extend her and Ailsa’s stay at the Waldorf-Astoria for another week, giving them time to finally settle on a small apartment in Brooklyn, of which they were able to afford with the help of Molly Brown’s Titanic Survivor Committee. Over the ensuing months, Maria found work as a laundress as Ailsa delved into journalism, and while also keeping to her own duties with the Salvation Army, made by alongside Ailsa and her own work. Ailsa helped Maria continue to learn to read and write during this time, how to handle money, and how to survive, through legal means. As 1913 turned to 1914, Maria found herself growing ever more open to getting attached to others again. A woman she met on Carpathia, Ella Meredith, would find Maria’s information, and the two would finally converse on the subject of Ella’s strange dreams, Maria’s late friend Lizzie. She began writing, albeit poorly written, letters to her friends Orla, and Jim Buchanan, and would often go out on dates with men she would meet. These dates often ended in disaster after Ailsa would find a way to scare them off, much to Maria’s dismay.

Maria stayed away from the water as much as she could following that night to remember, but as the years continued to progress, so did her scars from Titanic subside. Her night terrors finally ended in 1915, and, as the war in Europe raged on, Maria would often find herself reading the papers in terror of what she was reading. Having lost her own family, reading of the widows and orphans from the war broke her heart. And, another nightmare was blooming.

### World War 1

In 1917, the United States found itself drawn into war with the German Empire, and Maria volunteered to go overseas for the first time since 1912 as a nurse. She would arrive in France in April of 1918, where she would be stationed outside of Cantigny. She would pick up French, learning the basics while living and working alongside natives. A month later, she would meet Richard Harlman, an American infantryman, while she tended to his wounds. He promised he would marry her after the war, a promise she didn’t expect him to actually follow through with.

In August, Maria would overhear an American courier mention in-passing sympathies towards the German Empire, and elected to tail him. Doing so led her down a rabbit-hole of conspiracy and plotting against the Allied forces preparing an offensive in Amiens. Startled by her discovery, she quickly found an audience with Major Bell, and worked alongside the Military Intelligence Division to put the plot to an end. Marlborough Churchill was impressed by her talents, and made use of her as a spy until the end of the war. Churchill went as far as funding her studies in the French language.

### The Great Depression

The market crash in ‘29 hit the Harlmans hard. Maria received no government pensions, despite her employment with them, and Richard’s store lost a lot of business. Richard had to pick up multiple jobs while Maria returned to laundressing on-top of her government work. Ailsa barely able to help with the kids here and there, and Richard working long hours where he could, Maria was largely left to her own devices in her free time to care for the kids. She had a little slack given that Finnegan had met Eveline Dacker, a girl his age that he fancied, and spent more time with her than with his family. The tension caused by this continued to rise between Richard and Maria, and, despite the economic situation of the United States steadily getting better by 1938, their marriage was not. The situation broke her heart worse than anything before, leaving her children and her husband as she returned to New York and moved back in with Ailsa.

Up and through the start of 1939, Maria was a wreck, much to Ailsa’s dismay. She tried to help Ailsa around the home and with money, but at the end of the day Ailsa was supporting herself and Maria. She would often stay up with the radio, listening to fireside chats or reports from the War. She listened in horror at Roosevelt’s explanation of the attack in Hawai'i, and the subsequent action the United States was taking. She found herself at war again.

## Attributes

Maria was known most notably by her thick Irish accent, which was portrayed in every line of dialogue she had in the in-game chat. The accent was so heavy that some players even had trouble understanding her at times. Throughout the voyage, Maria showed much curiosity and inquisitiveness, on top of youthful and ignorant naïveté. She had a touch of rebelliousness, particularly toward her father, whom she saw as a pathetic man until their last moments. Maria was good at heart, however this wasn't enough to keep her out of trouble.