[Child of the 7th Age]

Background Story for Cami

Camelia Goodchild ("Cami") was born 1382 S.R., the only child of Obo and Honeysuckle Goodchild. Honeysuckle was from a well-to-do family in Coombe-under-Bree said to be connected with the Tooks; her husband Obo, a Harfoot farmer of modest means, had leased a small burrow on Bagshot Row. Their marriage was a happy one, although Honeysuckle's relations disapproved of the union, and never fully accepted it.

Despite his public objections to the marriage, Honeysuckle's father quietly approached Bilbo and begged him to make sure his granddaughter receive at least a smattering of book learning. Cami was a regular visitor at Bag-end from about age seven on. Many afternoons, she could be found at Bilbo's kitchen table, learning her letters and numbers in the company of her cousin and neighbor Samwise Gamgee.

As Cami grew older, she resolved to follow in Bilbo's footsteps by becoming a writer and historian, a plan her family and neighbors deemed impractical. She ignored these naysayers and followed her heart, assisting Bilbo in his earliest efforts to piece together scattered scraps of Elvish lore. This activity came to an abrupt halt in 1401 when her teacher vanished without explanation. Bilbo's unexpected departure left a great hole in Cami's life that was not to be filled until, many years later, when she met the Loremaster Maura Took.

The untimely demise of her father in a farming accident and the subsequent loss of their homestead left Camelia and her mother in desperate straits. Since Belle Goodchild Gamgee had died several years before, they could not properly go and live with their neighboring kinsfolk, as might otherwise have been the case. The Brockhouse clan failed to provide support, so the women had little choice but to leave Hobbiton, when no other work could be found. They secured postions in Buckland Hall, on Frodo Baggin's recommendation, with Honeysuckle working as a cook and Cami as a nursemaid, an arrangement that continued for some eighteen years.

Fearing that time was passing her daughter by, Honeysuckle made Cami promise to wed Hob Fields, a kindly friend of the family with a small holding in Tukborough. But this was not to be. Like other lads from Tukborough, Hobb fought with Pippin at the Battle of Bywater, and was one of nineteen hobbits killed that day.

With the death of her mother from natural causes just two years later, Cami vowed she would not become another hand-me-down maiden aunt, whose life was bounded by the Shire. On Meriadoc Brandybuck's recommendation, she secured a position as nanny in far-away Minas Tirith, travelling to Gondor with a dwarf trading caravan making its way through Bree. She was hoping for an exciting new start, but things did not turn out the way she had expected. For over ten years, she lovingly tended to the needs of Beregond's children and grandchildren. As the only hobbit in Minas Anor, she found things a bit lonely and spent her free time roaming the streets of the city or reading in its archives for endless hours.

In the tenth year of the Fourth Age, after the death of her aged Aunt Amalda, Cami unexpectedly came upon a small inheritance and found herself appointed guardian for her young cousin Rose Goodchild. It was at this juncture that she decided to break from her past and try to do something that would bring about change and perhaps help other hobbits as well. Just turning fifty, she invested her inheritance in hiring a sailing vessel to search for and rescue sea hobbits, a tale outlined more fully in "The Voyage of the Lonely Star."

This one decision would change Cami's life. Readers should consult the tale of the Star for Cami's friendship with Mithadan, Bird, and Piosenniel; her love of Maura Took; and her subsequent adoption of Gamba and four orphan boys.

[ February 26, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]