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Guiding Light Discussion Group
The whole convoluted Matt/Vanessa/Maureen story:
Circa 1995/96 or so:
Vanessa began to have dizzy spells and though she claimed that everything was okay with her, he believed that she was hiding something from him and that the mysterious Zach Smith knew more about it. Suddenly Vanessa had a car accident and when Matt rushed to the scene with Dinah and Bill, the cops stopped him and the car exploded. Vanessa's wedding ring was found in the burned car and although everyone else was convinced that Vanessa was dead, a heartbroken Matt had the feeling that she was alive.
At Vanessa's funeral, Matt met her ex-husband Billy Lewis for the first time and Bill wanted to leave home because he disapproved of Matt as his guardian. In addition, Bill faked Matt's signature to get the $ 200,000 but Matt, Nola and Quint Chamberlain caught and stopped him, whereupon Bill moved into the boardinghouse. Meanwhile, Matt felt lost without Vanessa, he lost the will to live and people around him soon realized it. In the meantime, Matt became more and more skeptical about Zach and believed that he knew something about Vanessa. So he wanted to talk with Zach at the Lighthouse but since Zach wasn't there, Matt broke in and found a letter that Vanessa had wrote to Matt. Though Zach was able to explain everything, Matt remained skeptical and asked Frank to investigate Zach. Although his family tried to get him to move on, with Nola even setting him up with a widow named Alice and a woman named Natasha, Matt wasn't ready to give up on the slim chance that Vanessa was alive. As for Bill, he continued to act out and during a brawl with him, Matt finally got him to admit that Bill wished that Matt was dead instead of Vanessa. This confession brought Matt and Bill closer together. Not long after, Matt tried to help Bill, when a girl named Candy that Bill was interested in couldn't go out with him because her mother forbade it. Trying to help, Matt had lunch with the woman and was disturbed to learn that he was the reason. The woman had gotten wind of Matt's former life as a gigolo and didn't want her daughter exposed to a man like that. Although Matt tried to convince the woman not to punish Bill for something he did a long time ago, the woman still refused to allow the two teens to date. Unfortunately, when Bill learned about what happened, he turned away from Matt again and sorted out his life when Billy was finally released from prison.
In 1997, Matt gave advice to several of his friends about their problems. In addition to helping Josh deal with the fact that he was still in love with Reva though married to Annie Dutton, Matt also met Vanessa's friend, Jenna, and counseled her about her relationship (or lack thereof) with the father of her baby, Buzz. He also provided advice to Hart who was in a relationship with Dinah. Knowing Hart and Dinah were having problems, Matt tried to be the supportive stepfather and give advice to Dinah. Although he tried to get her to see that she was a special woman who'd find a man to love her for who she was, Dinah wasn't quite convinced. Depressed over the loss of her mother and Hart, Dinah bonded with Matt over their shared loss and their attempts to build a children's wing at Cedar's in Vanessa's memory. Knowing how much Dinah still loved Hart, and that the feeling was mutual, Matt arranged for the couple to be locked in a shed until they could settle their relationship one way or the other. Matt's plan worked and the pair decided that their love could overcome their differences. While he was helping everyone else with their problems, Matt continued to build his and Vanessa's dream house at Lake Summit.
While building the house, he struck up an on-line friendship with a woman who called herself "Tess." Calling himself "Robert", Matt and the woman corresponded for weeks and formed a bond. But then one day, Matt saw the words "I miss you Matt." on his computer, and he knew instantly that he had been talking to Vanessa. Although Dinah initially scoffed at his theory that Vanessa faked her death (to spare her family the agony of dealing with her fatally illness), soon she began to suspect that perhaps he was right and she set out with Matt to locate Vanessa at a hospice in Switzerland.
After Bill's high school graduation, Matt and Dinah traveled to Switzerland. Although they found proof that Vanessa was alive, her illness had gone into remission and she'd already checked out! Looking for clues, the pair learned that Vanessa had been treated by a doctor named Michael Burke, who had a questionable past. Looking for clues to Vanessa's whereabouts, they searched Michael's room. They find a photo I.D. on one of his jackets. When they both recognized him as being at Bill's graduation. Matt realized that he (Matt) was standing right next to Vanessa. Thinking that Michael preyed on helpless women, Matt began to fear for Vanessa's safety. The pair then went back to Springfield to decide what to do next, but everything they did seemed to lead to a dead end. Soon Matt caught up with Michael Burke, but Vanessa had taken off shortly before that because she felt Michael was beginning to get feelings for her other than friendship. After learning that he was wrong about Michael, Matt allowed Michael to help him find Vanessa. Meanwhile, Dinah tried an on-air plea on television to convince Vanessa that there was nothing going on between her and Matt. But Vanessa still would not return. Soon Matt decided that if he finished their dream house Vanessa would come home. So with help from Springfield's other residents Josh, Reva, Blake, Ross, Dinah, Hart, Roger, Amanda, Nola, Abby, Rick, Buzz and Jenna, Matt finished the house. They had a housewarming party and that night after everyone left, Matt was standing in the house when Vanessa finally returned home. Though Matt was angry that Vanessa didn't share her secret with him, he forgave her and the couple reunited.
Soon after, Vanessa begun experiencing dizzy spells while Matt had to struggle with his feelings of forgiveness towards Vanessa for faking her own death. Matt soon forgave Vanessa but when he discovered she was still taking her medication he became worried and made her go to the doctor for fear of the disease coming back. Vanessa reluctantly went to the doctor. After running some tests they were informed that Vanessa's disease had not returned she was pregnant. But her doctors Rick and Michael advised her not to carry the baby to term because her disease could come out of remission and kill her. After hearing the news, Matt became extremely worried about losing Vanessa because of the pregnancy and encouraged her to have an abortion. But Vanessa was determined to carry her baby to term. She felt at least if she had the baby if one of them was to lose the other they would still have their child to comfort them. However, Matt was adamant that Vanessa should not risk her life for her child's and almost convinced Vanessa as well. While Vanessa was at Cedars ready to Cedars to terminate her pregnancy, Matt found a letter at home that Vanessa had written to her unborn child. At the hospital, Vanessa had a change of heart, and to her surprise, so did Matt when he rushed to Cedars to stop her.
In early 1998, a vindictive Dinah attempted to hurt Vanessa when Vanessa started a friendship with Dinah's chief rival, Cassie Layne. Dressing up like Vanessa, Dinah set it up to have Matt kiss her, setting it up so that her mother would see. However, the plan failed and Vanessa saw nothing while Matt blasted her for what she was doing. The next day, he pretended to want to sleep with Dinah and help her run over Cassie in order to show Dinah how much she needed to get help. However, his efforts didn't work. Meanwhile, Vanessa and Matt heard devastating news--the pregnancy was causing complications and threatening to cause her disease to return. Although the doctors suggested terminating the pregnancy by performing a C-Section, to Matt's horror, Vanessa refused to go through with the C-section, willing to let herself die and the child live. Unwilling to let Vanessa die, Matt decided to take her to court to force her to have the procedure, rationalizing that he'd rather have her hate him and still be alive. Enraged that Matt was taking her decision way from her, Vanessa vowed to fight him. Fortunately, the problem became moot when Vanessa went into premature labor herself and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Maureen, named after Matt's aunt and her late best friend, Maureen Bauer. But then she fell in coma herself and had a vision of the deceased Maureen who convinced her to hold onto her life since her family needed her. While no one believed Vanessa would survive, she awoke and recovered. When her daughter, Maureen, needed a kidney, Holly Reade saved her by a kidney-transplant.
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I too have no recollection of where or when Maureen came from. Does anyone know the whole story?
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