Good-Bye Guiding Light

I remember watching Guiding Light with my Mom. I'd get home, do my homework, and then she'd call me in when it came on. I would lay on the floor in the living room and finish doing my homework during commercials. I remember her getting really angry at scenes and couldn't figure out why, after all it was just a soap. We'd discuss storylines and plotlines, commenting on characters and putting down others. Then my sister Trisha used to watch it with me. Our favorites were Quintin and Nola, Josh and Reva, Philip and Beth, Lujack and Beth, (Almost Paradise was mine and Trisha's favorite song for months), Mallet and Harley, and there was always the promise of our characters breaking up, only to get back together. Throughout the years, we'd keep up the daily discussions, especially when they would do something really stupid, like break up Reva and Josh, yet again. When I got married, the discussions somewhat ended, which made me a little sad, but I kept up the tradition of watching it daily, much to my husband's disapproval. Of course when he was home from work, there was no watching it, so I had to keep up with the updates in the paper. In 1994, when Patrick was 2 and was always wanting to be outside around the time the soap came on, I watched it less and less, until I stopped watching it altogether. I would catch snippets now and then, flipping through channels and stopping for a second to see if I recognized anyone, but never watched more than 5 minutes of it. Then came the news from my stepmom that The Guiding Light was to be cancelled in September 2009. Even when she provided the link, I couldn't believe it. Why would they take such an amazing show off the air? On Friday, September 18, 2009, The Guiding Light ended it's 72 year run. I happened to catch the last few seconds, which amazingly had my 2 favorite characters in it...Josh and Reva and him asking if she was ready, and Reva replying back, "Always." Such a fitting, but sad ending to a wonderful soap.