When Donna Lewis had come to Port Charles right after her granddaughter's birth, she had been pleased to find Brenda Barrett still there.
They had met on her first visit there, right after Alexander started school.
Donna had brought Alexander a new laptop computer and said she wanted to do anything she could to help him through college. She had her family money, she pointed out, and his college fund had been untouched. His father controlled all that, she said, but might be prevailed upon to open it up for him.
Alexander explained he had already refused when his father had, to his surprise, said he would help him with college.
Donna learned that Brenda had met Cameron. Brenda told Donna she had had similar problems with her father, who preferred her elder sister, who was more responsible and more educated and more talented. But Brenda thought Cameron was much worse, very cold, so cold she said, she had suggested to Cameron's face that perhaps he wasn't Alexander's father. "Anyway, I refuse to recognize him as his father," Brenda had said. "Sort of the same way the world wouldn't recognize Communist China."
Donna had turned pale at first, but then she laughed.
Donna often saw Alexander smile at the crazy things Brenda said. She was a decade older, and she was a famous model, and Donna at first felt cautious, but it appeared that they got along, had some things in common, and Donna could see that her son was happy. Donna did not believe she could remember that he had ever been that happy before. She couldn't quite understand how he made Brenda happy, but Brenda was interested in him, and talked to Donna about him, not about herself, as one might have expected.
At one point, alone with her, Donna came out and asked her how she felt, and Brenda smiled and said he was easy to talk to, they just got along, and she couldn't put her finger on it, they just hit it off and had a common outlook. She said she cared about him very much, adding, to Donna, "Don't you too start sounding like you don't think much of your own son."
"Oh, no," Donna said. "It's not that. I could believe some ordinary girl would really care for him."
"I have my ordinary moments," Brenda said. "Or maybe Zander has more extraordinary ones that you might think. I guess you got an earful of Cameron's opinion. My father always thought my older sister was perfect and compared me to her, unfavorably, in front of me, failure, and my mother - "
"Your mother?"
"Is in a psychiatric institution. Very serious problems. Very."
"Much worse than mine."
"Much more. So you can imagine how glad I am you can be more reassuring to Zander, now. He was really happy when you said you were proud of him."
"I'm sorry you don't hear that from your parents," Donna said.
"She almost got me all teary eyed for myself," Brenda said, describing this conversation to Zander later, in bed, after making love to him. She loved the way they could talk about anything, any time. He was so easy going that way.
"Do you ever talk to your sister?" he asked.
"Yes, every now and then."
"Does she love you?"
"Yes."
"Maybe she's proud of you."
"Yes. And I have a lot of really good friends."
"I've heard you talking to some on the phone, but they don't seem to be around."
"I've got you, too."
"You do. Have you ever talked to your mother?"
"Not since I was a little girl. She must be so bad off that it would do no good, anyway. She wouldn't know me."
"With your father gone, who keeps tabs on her?"
"Her brother. I should do more about it."
"Why doesn't your sister?"
"She's got a different mother."
"Whoah, I didn't realize that. Is her mother still alive?"
"No, she died before our father married my mother."
"Still, your sister is older - maybe she remembers your mother? She was her stepmother."
"She does remember a little bit, but I already know all she knows, and mostly it isn't so pleasant - it's evidence she was going crazy."
"I'm sorry."
"I think your mother is OK with me but she still wondered why the fashion model wants her young son, and so on. I think I'm the only one who knows you!"
"They don't understand that I am good for your education. And a spur to your vocabulary."
She had laughed and kissed him, and hugged him, rolling over and pulling him on top of her, and giggling and kissing him some more.
When Donna had come back after Virginia was born, she had been still happier Brenda was there.
Cameron had apparently celebrated the occasion by telling Alexander that normally people grew up and got jobs and got married to the mother of their child before the child was born. That was the usual plan. Alexander never had a plan, and had therefore been blindsided into early fatherhood. And he was now with yet another woman. Who knew but that this one wouldn't drag him into fatherhood too? She was of a similar age.
Alexander told Cameron that he did have a plan, which was: that his daughter was never going to be subjected to Cameron or his attitude. Cameron could forget ever talking to or seeing Virginia.
Brenda had supported this decision of Alexander's.
Virginia's mother had at first resisted, saying that Ginny therefore had no grandfather. Her father, it appeared, was completely unknown. Her mother had, at the time of her conception, been a "working woman." This was going to be tough enough to explain to Virginia one day. If Cameron wanted to be a grandfather, why not?
Brenda had the bright idea to have Carly meet Cameron.
After spending ten minutes with Cameron, Carly was on Alexander's side.
When Donna had learned all this, she was relieved. She still hated the idea of talking to Cameron and had vowed she would never be alone with him.
Brenda and Alexander said he lurked about town. They ran into him from time to time. Cameron knew where Alexander lived and dropped by every once in awhile to offer a snide comment.
Donna appreciated the warning and said she'd look about her to avoid him.
Donna had found she could get along well with Virginia's mother and her other grandmother. The other grandmother, Bobbie, was especially kind and easy to talk to. She was a nurse at the hospital, and in talking to her Donna learned that she had managed to rise out of a life of poverty, in which she had resorted to prostitution, to become an R.N. She had put Carly up for adoption, but had the luck to reunite with her when Carly had come to Port Charles looking for her. Her adoptive mother, Virginia Benson, had died, and so of course Carly had named her first daughter after her.
Donna was intrigued and asked how their relationship was, and if Bobbie felt like she was able to be a real mother after not having raised her daughter.
Bobbie said she couldn't of course, entirely have the same relationship with her daughter that she would have otherwise had, but that blood must be thicker than water, because she could still see herself in her daughter even though others had raised her, and that she took an interest in everything concerning Carly, and that she was really glad fate led her to be able to be a real grandparent to her grandchildren.
Donna wondered aloud if it could be like that with a father, or if it was only that way for mothers. Bobbie, not sure what Donna was getting at, merely speculated that maybe it was possible that a man could take such an interest in his child, but men were different. Donna smiled and agreed.