I was getting better at training toddlers by this point, so Liam learned how to walk, talk, and use the potty before growing up. I also left him alone with his toys quite a bit since I was trying to micromanage 6 other Sims as well. At one point I had all 7 family members in Platinum (!), but it didn’t last very long.

Here’s a pic of nearly everyone except for little Liam, who was, of course, playing with his toys in the toddler room. Kiara had just burped, and Leo was the only one to react.

I was thrilled when the desire to “Write a Bestselling Novel” appeared in Kiara’s aspiration panel. Wahoo! Finally, a Fortune Sim with an interesting want! I set her to working on her novel right away, then nixed it when I realized it would be better if she reached the top of the athletic career first (a 15,000 pointer) — then she could retire after hitting elder status and just write for the rest of her days. I did snap a pic of her having a writing epiphany, though, while Devin did his homework in the background…

At some point I answered another chance card correctly, and Nia received §35,000, which finally fulfilled her Earn §75,000 want. Whee! Shortly after that she reached the age of 79, and I had a feeling she would pass away on her 80th birthday — that’s when other people’s Legacy elders seem to go, anyway. This was tricky, because I wanted to make sure she died in Platinum (plat headstones count for 1 point each in the challenge), but I had to make sure everyone who had a fear of her dying was also in Platinum, or else they’d be receiving visits from the Sim Shrink (a -1 point penalty). I had Nia stay home from work, because who wants to work on their last day on earth? She had a vacation day she could use anyway.

The day before, I had gotten “Woohoo with Sheldon” to show up in Nia’s aspiration panel and locked it so that I could save it for her last day. I figured I would have her woohoo with him at about 4:00 PM, kicking her into full platinum before she turned 80 at 6:00 PM. Until 4:00, though, not much was on the agenda, so I let her do what she wanted. She tucked in little Liam…

…and played some pinball with Sheldon.

I had them woohoo at the appointed time, then watched as Nia’s birthday came and went. Nothing happened. I figured maybe she had another day or two left and let her go about her business. An hour or two later, while she was about to sit down on the toilet, the Grim Reaper materialized, complete with hula dancers, an umbrella drink, and a suitcase. Not a bad way to go! Nia picked up her suitcase and vanished along with the reaper and his cohorts.

Everyone in the family rushed into the bathroom (or tried to, anyway) to sob and wail over Nia’s passing. Even the toddler was crying! It was horrible to watch. The Sim shrink didn’t show up, however, so that’s a good thing. I herded everyone out of the bathroom and sent them to about their business, but they kept dropping the tasks in their queue so they could stop and cry piteously. It was all I could do to get everyone washed and fed that evening. I made a nice little place for Nia’s urn, right next to the money tree in the study. The next day everyone seemed to be crying less, but they would occasionally go to the urn and grieve.

Eventually I moved the urn into backyard and made a nice little family cemetery. Sheldon passed away two days later, so his headstone went there as well. Unfortunately his aspiration meter slipped into Gold just before the reaper came, so I didn’t get a nice platinum one for him. Dangnabbit. He did get the hula dancers, though, so I guess that happens for all elders, regardless of their aspiration level? I hope so.

A funny thing about Sheldon — right after Nia died, he wanted to get a job in the Criminal career track! So the former mayor of Mt. Geneva spent a day as a Streethawker before his passing. He also wanted to see a relative get engaged, but Kiara was just too busy with her career, and she was the only one who could get engaged at that point. Without any woohoo wants to fall back on, I tried to fulfill his ‘Win a game against Devin’ want by pitting them against each other in a game of chess, but with a maxed Logic skill, he LOST the game to his grandson. Dah! If only he had won the game, he would have been in platinum when he died. Ah well.

These were my first Sim “old age” deaths, so I had never encountered the inheritance part of the game, and let me just say — holy cow. When Nia died, she left §20,000 to Sheldon, §10,000 to each of her children, and §1,750 to her grandson Devin. Sheldon left §10,000 to each of his children, §1,500 to Devin, §875 to Liam, and §250 to his best bud Will Dobbins. The Shanleys are pretty much set for life.

The downside is that Nia’s ghost has started showing up, and she is extremely irritating. She wakes up everyone repeatedly in the middle of the night, so they can’t get any sleep, and she scared poor Liam (now a child) so many times that he peed on the floor. Devin (now a teenager) promptly mopped up it up, but still. Liam’s Hygiene went down to zero, and his Energy was almost at zero, so I put a bed in the toddler room and had him sleep down there. Nia continued to haunt the upstairs and wake everyone up, but at least she didn’t bother poor Liam anymore.

I’m not sure what to do, especially when Sheldon starts haunting as well. The remaining Shanleys need their sleep! I could delete Sheldon’s headstone — since it’s not platinum, I don’t get any points for it anyway, so I might do that. As for Nia, I could put a moat around the cemetery, since apparently ghosts can’t cross the water, but then I don’t get the 2 points for free-roaming ghosts. I guess I’ll have to catch up on the TS2Legacy Yahoo! Group and see if anyone has any pointers…