Sylvia

Sylvia Longstock, more commonly known as the Canary Lady, is a very important figure in Level One, much to her misery. She's one of the few older inhabitants of Level One. She has greyed once black hair and sad eyes, her clothes usually adorned with traces of bird poop and seeds.
Sylvia was never able to have children, the dreaded Miscarriages of the Mines claiming every single one, leaving her in a delicate state, a shadow of her vitality. In an effort to heal her heart, her husband presented her with a rare gift in these lands, three bright and lively singing canaries, which she took heart to immediately. The birds became the children that never made it earthside, bearing the names meant to be gifted to them. Sylvia would go on to breed them, loving and nurturing them as any mother would. Letting them fly free in the house as the numbers increased, as she would not part with any of them. It wasn't until the accident when things started to escalate...
The three canaries soon turned into Sylvias hoard after the accident on Level Three claimed the life of her husband, 16 other miners and 3 pit ponies. Unable to bare the weight of her grief, Sylvia put all of herself into her birds. She'd turn her house, her life, into caring for her birds. The weight of her hoard drowning out the weight of her loss and loneliness. Each bird gifted with one of the repeated 19 names, the names of her lost children and late husband.
Officials of Level One would soon start to take notice of her healthy growing hoard, trying to buy or negotiate for them to be used in the mines. Each attempt shut down and turned away, as Sylvia would not part with any of them. It was roughly a year after her husbands death when the first raid happened... A team hired by Officials broke into her house in the night, capturing and stealing almost a fourth of her canaries, physically restraining Sylvia as she cried out for her children and husband. The beginning of the biannual raid of Sylvia's hoard. The repeated raids leaving her a broken, paranoid and untrusting lonely woman.
Sylvia's birds help save many lives, and are highly sought after by the miners. They are by far the healthiest and liveliest birds available in the mines, for each was cared after as if her own child. However very few know the truth of where these birds come from.
The mines have taken everything from Sylvia; her children, her husband, her birds, and her happiness. The mines darkness consumes all