Blast from the past

Ingrid’s birth mom is in for the shock of her life!

Ingrid’s need to find her mom isn’t as welcomed as she had hoped. Weekdays e.tv (*194) 19:30

After weeks of struggling and searching high and low, Ingrid (Stephanie Sandows) is finally ready to meet her birth mother on Thursday 4 January, the mysterious Arabella Lewis (Sandi Schultz). Ingrid is even baking a cake! But for Arabella, there has been none of the build- up, excitement or expectation. Ingrid will be knocking on a door that her mom thought she had closed long ago when she handed baby Ingrid to her birth father Wesley (Zane Meas) to raise…

HELLO, MOTHER

In a way, it’s a door that’s been shut but was never locked. Sandi explains that “I believe Arabella has thought about Ingrid, she wondered what she looked like, she wondered what she was doing. She envisioned alternate scenarios, especially once she got married and had another child. And she must have envisioned what it might have been like had she been able to keep the child. As someone who doesn’t have biological children, I can relate to the decision to not have children. I can relate to the decision to feel like the world is beckoning and I can relate to a character who wanted more. So I don’t blame her. There is a line that she says, ‘I wasn’t ready,’ and I absolutely get that.” The actress adds that “I can also understand being completely okay with that decision but still missing that child, wondering how that child is and feeling a connection over the years. The two are not mutually exclusive.”

KNOCKED OUT!

Seeing Ingrid on her doorstep is a shock though for Arabella. “I think she is completely gobsmacked,” says Sandi. “I don’t think she can quite process it. She has another whole life that’s going on. The last thing she’s thinking of is her daughter.” And aside from the shock, Arabella has suddenly had a huge problem dumped in her lap. It looks like Ingrid isn’t the only person who has been kept in the dark about her mother’s identity. Arabella’s reaction to Ingrid’s news might not be the happy reunion of her dreams…