Patricia Harrelson

When I met Cindy, she was an ER fan. We didn’t have a TV when we first moved to Jamestown, so her mom used to tape it for us, and we would watch 2 or 3 episodes at once. It wasn’t long before I was hooked too.

Our favorite character was Abby Lockhart. Her humanity touched us: her struggle with addictions, her complicated relationship with her mother (played by Sally Fields, one of Cindy’s all time favorite actors), her difficulty deciding to marry Luka, and her overwhelming experience when becoming a mother. WHEW! We dripped tears when she was one of the first to depart at the start of the season. How could we watch ER without Abby???

What were we going to do when ER ended? The 3 hour programming of the last night was filled with reunions (Kerry, Susan, Elizabeth, Peter Benton, Rachel Green) and hope (Sam and Tony, Neela and Ray, Archie and Claudia–and even Simon’s possibilities). The program theme was definitely about death in its many manifestations, tragic and bittersweet, a fitting end to a terrific show.

We are going to try SouthLAnd, the next program by ER producers, but we will miss ER. In fact, we’ve decided to get the first season from Netflix for our summer viewing pleasure. We just aren’t ready to let ER go yet . . .