Hello dears, it’s Maude here, with a little thing I like to call “catching up with the Dobbinses”. You see, while Nick Dobbins was busy womanizing half of Mt. Geneva, and Joely Dobbins was busy running the household, their two sons Will and Rory were growing up fast, and I could hardly keep up! I had started roaming around town peeking in on some of the other new families, so I wasn’t spending as much time with the Dobbins family.

When I did look in, I saw scenes of domestic comfort. Nick became a chef at Spanky’s Steakhouse and must have eaten everything in their icebox, because he developed quite a little pot belly. Between grilling steaks and paying clandestine visits to Tess Blakemore, he helped Joely raise their two precocious boys.

It wasn’t long before Rory became a toddler, and a very playful one at that. Joely had to hire a nanny just to keep up with him! She had become a surgeon at the clinic and needed to devote some time to her career, but she still played with Rory whenever she could. Will was quite a help around the house as well, preparing bottles for Rory and cleaning up after the little tyke.

Will continued to go to school, complete his homework, and stay out of trouble. In fact, I never saw a more well-behaved teenager! He remained rather surly around his father, however, and though he was a popular kid with several good friends, he never went steady with any girls. I think he was too shy, or perhaps he was too serious? He seemed easily traumatized by things, as I noticed the day he saw the repairman get electrocuted!

Will and Rory had birthdays on the same day, so Joely made cakes for each of them and invited their friend Randy over. Nick was working (or having a secret rendezvous, ahem…) and couldn’t be there, but everyone else celebrated the big day by cheering and generally whooping it up. Will became an adult, resembling his dad in almost every way except for his hair color. Rory grew into a child and looked very much like Will had at that age. What handsome lads!

Almost the very next day, Will moved out of the house. His disdain for his father had reached new heights, and though he copied Nick’s outfit down to the last thread, he wanted nothing else to do with him. How he would miss his mom and his little brother! But he knew they would visit him as often as they could.

The Dobbins family is fractured, but is it beyond repair? Next time we’ll visit Will on his own and see how he fares in his new, independent life. Until then, adieu!