Iâve decided since we rudely were not provided with her actual pre- and post- marriage last name, Debbie now gets to be a Collins.
She can be Maggieâs sister, she ran off to do college in Oregon because she felt like she was too much of a free spirit to fit in with her family, she was going to be a REAL ARTIST, not a bougie art academic. (She does not like to be reminded of this now that sheâs a designer for NIKE.)
Wait okay how does that timeline work out then. You better believe Iâm making this a Thing now. Heartsick happens in 2007. Ben and Sara are 6 and 8âŚ. Sam wouldâve died the year before at age 10âŚ. Archie is 40 and Nateâs supposed to be generally early 40sâŚ.. so yeah this totally tracks, we can make Debbie the rebellious little sister.
I started this wanting to say that they kind of hate each other but I donât think so actuallyâŚ. idk I kinda like the idea of them being able to lean on each other a bit even from opposite coasts. Especially with both having tragedies and divorces so close together, and both their hisbands/exes having SUDs. But it is also very easy to ruffle each otherâs feathers about their life choices, especially with Debbie feeling weird about not following through on her supposed ideals, and the KIDS of course are a wholeass minefieldâŚ.
And of course we havenât even gotten around to how they feel about each otherâs exesâŚ.. or how the exes feel about each otherâŚ.. I mean ACTUALLY I think in the beginning they would all get along? Theyâre all on the same âside,â they have similar interests so thereâs plenty to talk about, but with different enough niches that thereâs nothing to come to blows about. The Sheridan kids would be a little too young to actually be close with Sam but Ben would definitely idolize him and follow him around relentlessly/obnoxiously/adorably. Archie and Nate both donât exactly want to spend Thanksgivings with THEIR families so I bet they all had some pretty good holidays with just the two families together, or maybe Maggie and Debbieâs parents hosted everybody.
I guess thatâs the saddest part of it: It was really good for a while.
