Charlie always felt awkward with Bella, and was never sure how to express his love for her. He did recognize that Bella was much more like him than she was like Renée, despite her living with Renée year-round. He was truly thrilled when Bella decided to live with him for her last year and a half of high school.
FAMOUS QUOTES
“You aren‟t turning into a tree-hugger on me, are you?” New Moon, Chapter 12
“It‟s not normal, Alice, and it… it frightens me. Not normal at all. Not like someone… left her, but like someone died.” New Moon, Chapter 17
“Isn‟t Edward up for a little healthy competition?” Eclipse, Chapter 1
“Maybe I‟m just feeling… superstitious after hanging out with Billy while he was being so strange all day. But I have this… hunch. I feel like… I‟m going to lose you soon.” Eclipse, Chapter 26
“You‟re pregnant! You‟re pregnant, aren‟t you?” Breaking Dawn, Chapter 1
“I don‟t want to know everything, but I‟m done with the lies!” Breaking Dawn, Chapter 25
“I would have tried to protect you, too, if I‟d known how. But I guess you‟ve never fit into the fainthearted category, have you?” Breaking Dawn, Chapter 26
RENÉE HIGGINBOTHAM DWYER
NAME: Renée Higginbotham Dwyer (previous married name: Swan) DATE OF BIRTH: 1968
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Unknown
HAIR COLOR: Brown
EYE COLOR: Blue
HEIGHT: Around 5‘4‖
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Renée looks a lot like Bella, but she has short hair, blue eyes, and laugh lines.
EDUCATION/OCCUPATION: She is a teacher; she has taught kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. She has also worked as a substitute.
HOBBIES: Renée has had too many hobbies to list. She doesn‘t stick with any of them for very long.
FAMILY MEMBERS: She is currently married to Phil Dwyer. Her daughter is Isabella
―Bella‖ Swan, and Bella‘s father, Charlie Swan, is her ex-husband. Her mother was Marie Higginbotham.
PERSONAL HISTORY:
Renée was born in Downey, California. Her parents divorced when she was still a child, and she never had much contact with her father. Her mother, Marie, was a difficult, bitter woman, but hardworking and loyal. Renée had a very different personality: fun-loving and artistic, but flighty and inconstant. Renée did not do well in school, despite the fact that she tested well. During her teenage years she was never able to hold a job for long, though she always interviewed very well.
The first year after high school, Renée worked several temporary jobs, making enough money to move in with a girlfriend who had space available in her small apartment. Renée couldn‘t take living with her pessimistic mother any longer. The next summer, one of her girlfriends decided to take a month off and travel the length of the Pacific coast, camping along the way. This was exactly the kind of adventure that Renée loved. She went on the trip with a few other girls, having no idea where she would live when she got back, if her roommate rented the space to someone else.
Renée loved being in love, and she loved feeling like she was living an adventure.
On First Beach, Renée met Charlie Swan. She was very attracted to him; he was different from her usual boyfriends, so serious and responsible, but funny and kind. She fell head over heels. She thought about Charlie for the rest of the trip north, and when she returned to Forks, she was easily convinced to stay for a little while longer. Renée loved being in love, and she loved feeling like she was living an adventure. When Charlie proposed, getting married sounded like the perfect cap to the whirlwind romance. They were married by a justice of the peace, with only Charlie‘s parents and three best friends in attendance. Renée sent her mother a picture from the wedding, but Marie didn‘t respond.
For a while, Renée enjoyed the novelty of being married. Charlie was a much easier person to live with than her mother had been, and his passionate adoration of her was very pleasant. She had a great deal of fun decorating the little house. She liked Charlie‘s kind, quiet parents. The tiny, quaint town was very different from L.A. She worked as a waitress for a while, and she liked meeting new people.
When Renée found out she was having a baby, it seemed like the next big adventure. She learned to knit and started decorating the nursery. She wrote to her mother again, and this time Marie sent a gift: her own mother‘s handmade quilt. Renée was touched.
When Bella was born, it changed Renée in some ways, but not in others. She became more responsible, better able to focus on what had to be done.
However, after a few months, everything seemed to get stale. The rain didn‘t let up for even an afternoon; Renée had never gone so long without seeing the sun. Charlie was busy with work and his parents, and Renée felt trapped and unhappy. She still loved Charlie, but there was no adventure left in their now staid relationship.
When Bella was born, it changed Renée in some ways, but not in others. She became more responsible, better able to focus on what had to be done. But she still felt trapped by the sunless small town. She hated the thought of letting her baby grow up in the gloom. She begged Charlie to leave with her, though she knew that was not a kind thing to ask. Finally, she decided that she needed to leave on her own and get her life in order, for Bella‘s sake. She realized that she had made some life-altering decisions without much thought, and she wanted to start over and proceed more carefully.
Renée went back to her mother, who was still difficult, but who doted on Bella. She enrolled in school and got her elementary education degree — spending time with Bella had made her realize that she was good with children and enjoyed them. Once she had her degree and a job, she moved a little distance away from her mother, to Riverside, California. There she began teaching kindergarten. Bella grounded Renée, who found ways to be satisfied with small changes in her hobbies and recreational activities. She made many close friends among the other teachers, and she got a lot of sunshine.
Renée‘s life was still more than a little chaotic, however. She was always getting herself into messy situations. As Bella got older, she began to assume many of the adult responsibilities in the home, simply because she was better suited to them than Renée was. When she took over the bookkeeping at age ten, it made both of their lives much easier.
After living in Riverside, California, for six years, Renée decided that she wanted to try living in a new place. She ended up getting a job in Phoenix, where she and Bella lived for five years. Renée‘s mother, Marie, died when Bella was twelve, after which Renée did not visit Califonia as often as she had when Bella‘s grandmother was alive.
―I rarely write about just humans. You can get humans anywhere.‖
— Stephenie
Renée missed Charlie, but always thought of him as a childish infatuation. She recognized that she was not well suited for serious relationships, and she did her best to keep herself from becoming entangled romantically, worried about the impact such a relationship would have on Bella. When Bella was in her teens, she encouraged Renée to date more, sensing that her mother was a little lonely. After a few relationships that didn‘t take, Renée met Phil and fell hard. Phil had an adventurous spirit, too, though he was a little more practical than Renée.