Bio

Eli Cruz Bio:

Born: Elijah Thomas Cruz
DOB: 11/16/1844
City of Birth: Charles Town, Virginia.
Parents: Tobias and Cynthia Cruz.
Siblings: Solomon and Claudia Cruz.

The youngest of three, Eli had a brother, Solomon, and sister, Claudia, and worked most of his life on the plantation that his father, Tobias, tried so hard to start and keep. His sister, Claudia, being the oldest, married a rich politician and moved to the Northeast to get an education as a writer. Claudia taught Eli about writing, and the importance of creating stories in order to tell tales of today’s world for tomorrow’s generation; Eli took a liking to it. They kept writing to each other even when she moved away. When the War hit in 1861, Eli’s overzealous father and brother took the call to fight, telling Eli to stay with his mother, Cynthia; he was only 16, but still obliged, not agreeing how fighting and succeeding would solve anything. One year into the war in 1862 marked a return of Tobias and Solomon, prompting the Confederates needed more hands to come and fight for his country. Seeing how mangled and destraught his father and brother was, and seeing the fear in his mother’s eyes he refused. When confronted with force, Eli fled, with a strange fear he never felt before . . . Solomon and Tobias disowned him as a family member and left to fight; Eli wrote to Cynthia as much as he could and she strangely agreed with what he did, no boy should be fighting at the age of 17. He lived off writing stories about the war and other obscure events for local papers and began a life journey of fear; until in 1864 his mother wrote him an urgent letter about Solomon. He was found dead, mangled by union soldiers in the Battle of Spotsylvania, and his father was missing and presumed dead. With this information, Eli returned to his home in Virginia to be with his mother. They expressed pain, and Eli felt guilt for his final encounter with his brother and father. Eli explained the loss of contact with Claudia to his mother and she grew even more worried. They rode on a cart to bury the false bodies of their family members when the incident happened*, he was only 19. Eli found a new calling after that day. With the war getting extremely strange, he would travel the nation to spread the word of the Lord and bring his stories and travels to the pen and paper, to tell the world the horrors of the world. He applied to the Tombstone Epitaph with a graphic explanation of hate and destruction he witnessed in the battlefield of Virginia. The editor loved it so much, and was in Virginia at the time, he decided to contact Eli to get together and talk. During their encounter Eli told his story to him and he was quite impressed how a man with such composure could still strive for success. On the walk back to the hotel the editor was staying at, a strange man in all back acting . . .wierd approached the two and attacked the editor with no sign of warning. Eli took him up to his room with a giant wound in his arm and summoned the Lord’s powers to heal him. After about a day of recovery the editor pinned it a . . . miracle; whether knowingly or unknowingly of what actually happened, he agreed that he owed Eli for that and after a grueling period earned his right as a reporter for the Epitaph. . . unfortunately, not writing the kind of stories he would like to make money, he is still always writing every event down on his notepad to break one big story to greatness. The editor consistently talks of Eli’s bravery to his colleagues and eventually gave Eli the confidence in himself to forgive himself for his sins against his family and bring down all evil in the world. Eli is light hearted in the sense that severity is short lived, evil is out there and to fear it would be to die by it; bringing light to the world is not only in the literal sense. Eli secretly wonders what happened to Claudia in Boston and monthly still writes her a letter to her last known residence with no avail. The year is 1867 and Eli is 23 years old. The youngest writer for the Epitaph and living as a holy soldier. Who knew an old plantation owner’s son from Virginny would be doin that?

*Woman in Black Encounter: A groggy Eli woke up to see a nun in a a normal black habit standing above him. She revealed to him that there had been an accident, that his mother had been killed and that Eli had lost the use of his legs. Eli was distraught at the news, demanding to know why these terrible things happens. The nun, who introduced herself as Sister Bernadette, smiles sadly at him and said she didn’t know, that the Lord works in mysterious ways. She asked Eli to pray with her, and he agreed. As they prayed, Eli could swear that he saw a light glowing from her hands and he felt a warm and comforting sensation. When they were done praying, he suddenly realized that he could feel and move his legs again. When he expressed his amazement, she put down a journal and a pen next to his bedside and said “The Lord has plans for you Eli, spread the Good News.” Then she left. A few minutes later a doctor arrived. The doctor was shocked by Eli’s recovery and that it was a miracle. Eli mentioned his meeting with Sister Bernadette. The puzzled doctor stated that he never heard of a Sister Bernadette.