My sister Peach stole the spotlight in Chapter 1. This bonus essay was first published for Substack subscribers and offers additional memories not included in the memoir chapter.

READ CHAPTER ONE HERE

Hey everyone, Daniel here. So I gotta tell you, Chapter 1 was a really hard chapter for me to write emotionally.

Both of my sisters and my mother have passed away.

Whenever I think of Guiding Light, I think of these three women. There were a lot of tears as I wrote. I missed them, and I missed my favorite show. But some tears came from laughing at my memories.

I felt I needed to let you know. It’s important.

Now to the fun stuff.

Both of my sisters would have wanted us to laugh, especially if it’s soap opera-related. So here are some funny Peach-isms, and some tidbits about Eva and Mom. These are stories I didn’t have room to share in Chapter 1; they might make it in the book.

Peach loved As the World Turns even more than Guiding Light. Peach and I watched both together and were each other’s cheerleaders during the shows. If we wore cheerleader uniforms, I’d be ‘S’ for Springfield, and Peach would be ‘O’ for Oakdale.

Peach loved, loved, loved Jack Snyder from ATWT. She also loved to hate Carly. But in an ‘I can’t stand her for Jack’ kind of way. Whenever Carly was in a scene with Jack, Peach would be thrilled.

I think it’s because Jack and Carly fought all the time, and she knew it was coming if Carly showed up. Once, at the end of a scene with a sobbing Carly and an angry Jack furrowing his brow, Peach scolded the TV, “My boyfriend, bad girl.”

She was ready to take Carly’s man.

Eva thought it was really funny how the two of us, Peach and I, obsessed over the soaps. She always made light of it. She stopped after Peach was able to pronounce Eva’s name correctly because of Reva on Guiding Light.

Eva got me more than the Guiding Light book; she also got me a subscription to Soap Opera Digest. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I preferred Soap Opera Weekly.

By the way, if you’re wondering if this all really happened, it did. I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it was trying to teach Peach to say Eva instead of Ee-yuh-vuh. I knew she could pronounce it correctly after she said Reva with no problem. Peach was playing me. Loved that girl!

Mom loved Ryan’s Hope because her grandparents’ surname was Ryan. I barely remember watching those early soaps: Search for Tomorrow, Ryan’s Hope, and Capitol. They were all gone by the 90s.

Mom was so excited when Mary Stuart took over the role of Aunt Meta Bauer on Guiding Light in 1996. Stuart played JoAnne “Jo” Gardner on Search for Tomorrow. I remember being at home when Mom made sure to tune in for the finale of Search for Tomorrow. We watched it together, obviously.

Peach passed away from COVID during the height of the pandemic. The last time I saw her, she was at home after a lengthy hospital stay for pneumonia. Despite being frail, Peach was in good spirits. The first thing she said to me was that Josh was still her boyfriend.

I smiled and held her hand in silence.

No wonder that girl loved Reva so much; they had the same taste in men.

Mom passed away after suffering from Lewy body dementia for more than a decade. Music helped her during that time. It would always perk her up. By then, her favorite soaps had all been cancelled.

My sister Eva passed away from breast cancer. The first time, it went into remission. When it came back several years later, I bought a stack of red, pink, and white construction paper. I went home, cut out paper hearts, filled a box, and sent it to her in the mail. She passed away weeks later.

Guiding Light bonded my family. If you have family you like to watch or talk about your stories with, do me a favor: tell them how much you love them the next time you see them.

Should I include any of these anecdotes in the memoir, and if so, which? Start survey here.

Thanks for reading.

Keep an eye out for Chapter 2 of my Guiding Light Memoirs in July. I pull back the curtain and step backstage for the first time. You might be surprised to learn what the first thing I did backstage was.

If you like these stories, please share my writing with other Guiding Light fans. They’ll love you for it.

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