Ruth Clark Tracy aka "Grandma"
Born: June 20, 1989
Current age: 78
Position: Mother to Jeff, mother-in-law to Dianne, grandmother to Scott, Virgil, John, Gordon, Alan, Cherie, Alex, and Tyler, surrogate grandmother to Tin-Tin and Brains, babysitter for Joshua Kelly, housekeeper and general gadfly for the Tracy family
Ruth Clark Tracy, the family's spitfire of a mother and grandmother, is an integral part of both the Tracy family and of the behind-the-scenes support system of International Rescue. Born in the late 1980s, she grew up in rural Kansas where she met and was wooed by the only love of her life, her husband, Grant Tracy. She married at 18 and at 19 had her one and only child, her son, Jefferson. She was accustomed to hard work, being a farmer's wife, and loved her life on her husband's farm. But unlike her rigid and strict husband, she could see her son's love of flying and supported him as he left the family farm, against his father's wishes, and went into the Air Force. Ruth was terribly proud of Jeff's achievements as an Air Force colonel, and later as an astronaut, and eventually she turned her husband around to her point of view.
Ruth came to love Lucille, the lady that Jeff married, and was very happy to be a grandmother soon after the wedding. She often went out to help the family during Lucille's difficult pregnancies and after each birth as well. It was Lucille who comforted and supported Ruth when she lost Grant to a heart attack. And it was Ruth who comforted and supported Jeff when he lost Lucille in an auto accident the year after Alan's birth.
Ruth moved in with Jeff and the boys for a time after Lucille's death, taking over the care of the boys until unwanted media attention made living near New York difficult. Jeff then moved the household out to the family farm for a time, until it became obvious that he needed to move to a larger city to be in closer touch with his growing business. Ruth remained at the family farm, having visits with the boys when they could spare the time, and especially with a college-aged Alan, who would often race at the nearby Parola Sands track. Alan's relationship with his grandmother is a close one due to the fact that in all his visits to her, she never told Alan's father where he was.
She became a staple in the family's life again after Gordon's hydrofoil accident, moving to California to help care for them during his recovery. When Jeff approached her about moving out to Tracy Island, she refused, citing her own home and comforts as an excuse to stay on the mainland. But when Jeff asked her again after Kyrano's seizures began, and told her about International Rescue, she accepted the challenge and moved to the Island. After some initial conflict with Kyrano, she settled well into life on the Island, baking her famous apple pies, helping Tin-Tin with her fashion design, and generally giving advice to all and sundry, most of it right on the money.
Her relationship with Dianne was rocky at first: she felt that Dianne's only reason for taking the job on the Island was to catch Jeff as a husband. But eventually Jeff was able to show her that he was the instigator of the romance and that his relationship with his fiancée was more important to him than his relationship with his mother, a blunt fact that stung Ruth. As a result, she left the Island for a time, boycotting the wedding and everything to do with it. She returned to the Island during the honeymoon, and a heart-to-heart talk with Lisa Parkhurst set her straight about her new daughter-in-law's background and intentions. Ruth then decided to make things work with Dianne, and on the newlywed couple's return, she greeted her daughter-in-law warmly and apologized for her previous attitudes. Since then, the two have had a good relationship, and Ruth has taken Dianne's children under her wing as her own grandchildren.
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