Unlike some of the bloggers here, I don’t follow soap operas, so the apparently continuing adoption-related thread through the story line … like sands through an hourglass? … on “All My Children” has passed me by.
My dear friend, Gay, however, has been following a British radio soap for a good deal of her life, which is why, I suppose, she’s so convinced the people are real, the stories are true, and the circumstances are not at all over-the-top.
“The Archers” is the world’s longest running radio soap, having first aired seven months before I was born, in January 1951. Gay didn’t bother much with the program as a kid, although she was certainly aware of it and familiar with the characters. (At least one of those characters has been played by the same actor since the very beginning.) Once hooked, she’s been wrapped up in the lives of the people ever since and listens to the show almost every day over the Internet.
(Just as an example of how important it is for her to keep up with “The Archers”, upon her recent return from Cambodia she dedicated time to listen to all the broadcasts she’d missed right away, but has yet to read all my blog posts. The noive!)
With some gaps in her following over the years … the period before Seychelles had Internet access, for example … you’d think she’d have missed a thing or two, but you’d be wrong. She owns the Archers Encyclopedia and “other important reference works” that fill her in on happenings during those missing years.
A story line has recently been presented that she thought I’d have an interest in, as it involves older parent adoption … in a soap opera sort of way.
Here’s her summation, delivered in person last night in a pantingly-thrilled voice … with gestures … then typed out this morning when she was a bit calmer:
Brian and Jennifer Aldridge (nee Archer) have been married for more than 30 years and have four children (two from previous liaisons of Jennifer’s), the youngest being Alice who is 18. Brian has always been a philanderer and his most recent fling with Siobhan (pronounced, ‘Shivon’) resulted in the birth of Ruari (pronounced, ‘Rory’) in 2002. Brian decided to stay with Jenny (and the farm, comfortable lifestyle, etc.) and Siobhan went off to work in Germany with her son. But … now she has cancer and is starting chemotherapy. She wants Brian and Jennifer to take Ruari in if the worst should happen and she does not pull through. Brian would definitely take on the boy with whom he thinks he has formed a real bond (Brian is SUCH an arse!), but Jenny at aged 62 refuses to contemplate the idea. Siobhan’s mother is in her 80s, and her only sister, Niamh (pronounced, “Neeve”), refuses to have anything to do with Ruari as she disapproved of the affair that led to his birth and hasn’t spoken to her sister since.
And that’s where we are at the moment. Exciting, or what?
So, amongst die-hard Archers fans … and there are 750,000 of those listening over the Internet alone … adoptive older parenting it the topic of the times. Listen in, if you like, to hear how Irish/English/suburban/soap folks from “an everyday story of country folk” deal with the issues.
I’m sure Gay will keep me posted.
