leslie's articles & interviews

Moments to Remember: Soap Opera News Salutes GH's Emily and Monica
Soap Opera News - November 18, 1997

Fourteen year old Emily Bowen Quartermaine has been through more in her short life than most people twice her age. Her father died when she was very young, and all she had was her mother, Paige. Then, Paige discovered she had cancer and she died in 12-year old Emily's arms. The young girl was adopted bye soaps' foremost dysfunctional family, the Quartermaines, after Monica, who was also suffering from the disease, and Paige had bonded in an Arizona wellness center. But living in that house of friction drove Emily to drugs--and an attempted acid-induced flight off the roof of the Quartermaine mansion last spring.

In six short months, Emily has cleaned up her act, although she is still required to attend counseling sessions.

Recently, Monica and her adopted daughter discussed how cancer had changed both of their lives forever. Monica explained very bluntly to Emily what the cancer had done to her, it had cost her a breast and her self-esteem. It damaged her marriage to Alan and forced her to turn to another man for comfort, the evil Dr. Pierce Dorman. Monica admitted to Emily that Dorman was her drug, while Emly had turned to the real thing. But Monica still thanked her lucky stars that although she had lost a part of her body, and a great friend, she'd also gained a daughter. Emily had to smile through tears when she realized that because of cancer, she may have lost a mother, but gained two new parents, a set of grandparents, two loving brothers and a whole bunch of other people who love her with all of their hearts.

What made that intense bonding scene so heart wrenching was that it was jextaposed with a scene of Alan, Monica's husband and Emily's father, falling apart because of his own addiction - his drug being prescription pain killers. Still, that horror couldn't take away the joy of watching mother and daughter lovingly embrace as they came to terms with the past that had treated them both so cruelly.