“Dibley Revisited: A Season of New Beginnings”–Episodes 0-3 (Part 1of 2), 2/05/12 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #122)

“Dibley Revisited:  A Season of New Beginnings”–Episodes 0-3 (Part 1of 2), 2/05/12 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #122)

                                                                         Episodes Treatment Summaries
Original Fan Fiction Adaptation of the characters
the BBC tv show  “The Vicar of Dibley”
(no copyright infringement intended;  all rights reserved)
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Ch. 0–Author’s Note

When “The Vicar of Dibley” ended its twelve year series run in 2006 with the marriage of Vicar Geraldine to Accountant Harry, the writers claimed in the dvd extras that they couldn’t figure out how to make a married vicar work within their storyline’s framework.

Precisely, fellas! This conflict between Geraldine’s duty to her flock and her love Harry would be the perfect comedic plot convention. Marriage is about negotiation, compromise, and the husband realizing that his wife is always always right. Ha! But more importantly, the VofD writers missed an opportunity to explore how that negotiation takes place–to humorous effect.  And I, for one, miss the show greatly.

So, I have written a detailed narrative for a new season of “The Vicar of Dibley” with 8 episodes exploring the Vicar and Harry’s life after marriage. These 8 episodes will comprise 8 chapters (or sections). So, I will keep it short and hopefully a fun and enjoyable read. I have yet to flesh out dialogue scenes, so that will help with the brevity I’m going for here.

And, this ‘season’ of Dibley episodes is on the more poignant end of the scale in terms of the action that takes place.  But then, the Dibley show always had moments of great heart in it, and that heart is what I draw upon here.

So, I plan to begin posting my “Dibley Revisited” Fan Fiction story in two sections:   Episodes 0 – 3 on 2/05/12 (part 1), and Episodes 4 – 8 on 2/12/12 (part 2).

Cheers! Gratiana.

P.S.  Oh and the writers of the original Dibley series, Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer?  Fellas, if you’re trolling the web and happen upon these story posts and like them, drop me a note.  Ha!  Or at least, please give us another season of “The Vicar of Dibley” on your own.  We fans love the show and miss it and its characters mightly.

“Dibley Revisited”, Episode 1-– Dibley Village Braces for Expansion

It is Monday afternoon, May 2^nd, 2011 and Harry Kennedy is home for the week.  Married almost 4.5 years to the love of his life Geraldine Julie Andrews….Granger Kennedy, Geraldine and Harry live a blessed life by most standards.  Harry continues to be “a bit of a weekender in reverse”, so they at least have five days together in Dibley village most weeks.  And, they have no money problems since they are a two income family—with one of them being a very financially successful accountant.  However, to their sadness, Geraldine and Harry have not been able to have a child together, nor have they looked into adoption seriously yet.  And with Harry being four years younger than Geraldine, not having a child yet weighs more heavily on the 47 year old Geraldine’s heart.

After an early dinner, Geraldine and Harry cuddle spooning on the couch—with Harry on the inside and laying behind Geraldine–before Geraldine has to head to her 7:00pm Dibley Village Council Meeting for the month.  Inevitably, Geraldine and Harry fall asleep laying comfortably and blissfully in each other’s arms.   Then around 7:05pm, Geraldine’s phone rings to remind her to head to her Dibley Village Council Meeting.  But, she still needs to freshen up first.  So, Geraldine turns up late getting to her Monday evening Dibley Village Council Meeting.  This lateness makes her a little perturbed.

Of course, Owen makes a lewd crack about the Vicar’s lateness being caused by ‘conjugal friction’—or something like that.  Owen does not endear himself to Geraldine with that remark—even though she has heard Owen’s rude and lewd remarks a thousand times before.  In fact, Geraldine has been out of sorts lately and quite fatigued for a few months with a recurring flu that doesn’t help her mood.  Then, Geraldine has her nose put out of joint again when Owen suggests that maybe Harry ‘knocked her up’—to use Owen’s lewd vernacular.   This statement also saddens Geraldine because she and Harry haven’t been able to conceive a child in the over four years they’ve been married.  This is a sadness that she has kept from her village friends with her now who don’t realize how dearly Geraldine wants to be a mother—well, a mother to more than just them.

It is near the end of the school year in the beginning of May 2011, and the main agenda item for this Dibley Village Council Meeting is to discuss the ramifications of Dibley being informed that the Dibley school district will be annexed to Eastley for the purposes of school redistricting.  This means higher taxes and the Dibley elementary day school will close at the end of this school year.  Not having a preK – 8^th grade school in Dibley will not only be inconvenient—with families having to travel to Eastley for school events–the Dibley Village Council fears that not having a school in the village will lessen Dibley’s attractiveness as a bedroom community to current and new people.  As Jim  [(2) right] remarks when asked, he says no no no no no no, it can’t be.   The fear with closing the Dibley Elementary school is that their beloved village of Dibley will ‘die’—something they have held off for many years.  The school closing hits Hugo especially hard since he and Alice are the family mostly ‘populating’ the grade school with their ten children at this time.  And, of course, these are David’s grandchildren.  So, David weighs in pompously as usual—which Frank minutes dutifully.

When Geraldine returns home that evening, she and Harry talk about the Dibley Elementary school closing.  Geraldine feels especially poignant about the school closing—as if the school’s closing is finally ending the possibility of she and Harry having a child.  And although Geraldine and Harry have talked a bit about adoption, they have not looked into it seriously, yet.   But, they decide tonight to look into adoption–and maybe surrogacy–more seriously, which makes Geraldine extremely happy.  So, much so that Geraldine and Harry make love tenderly with each other.  After which, they get the munchies like they usually do and have a picnic in bed as they pull their snacks out of their night stand drawers.  Unfortunately, Harry’s power bar biscuit crumbs spill out of his mouth and onto his slightly hairy chest like a ‘biscuit drool take’ as he talks to Geraldine.  Geraldine might be tempted to ‘graze’ on Harry’s hairy chest to help him ‘clean up’ the biscuit crumbs—as evidenced by her also picking up some pieces of biscuits from his chest with her fingers and popping the crumbs into her mouth.

However, Geraldine’s true munchy craving is always chocolate as she pulls out an assortment of chocolate candies in a heart shaped candy box that Harry had given her for Valentine’s Day and she pops one of the chocolates into her mouth happily.  But, when Geraldine next bites into her favorite cocoa nut center chocolate candy, it turns her stomach and she goes running to the bathroom and throws it up–not the best end to a romantic evening.  But, Harry grimacingly holds Geraldine’s hair out of the way and wipes her forehead with a cold cloth—as loving husbands do–before she brushes her teeth and they return to bed to sleep for the night cradled in each others’ loving arms.

The next day, Tuesday morning, While the ‘1930’s vintage spiffily attired’ Harry and Hugo are on the golf course—terrorizing other golfers with their dangerous golf swings and screeching golf balls that almost take out two other residents with near misses–Gerry chats in her vicarage home with her best friend Alice about her and Harry’s plans to look into adoption and surrogacy.  The Earth Mother Alice [(3) right]—with ten children of her own by her loving husband Hugo—is delighted for her friend.  And, eager to be pregnant again, she offers herself up as a surrogate.  Geraldine is bowled over by her best friend’s generosity and they have a good cry—with Alice saying that she just has to clear it with Hugo, naturally.

Just then, their husbands show up–after giving up golfing after nine holes–the men are clued into the news.  But with Alice giving the news, it’s not quite what Geraldine intended because Alice asks Hugo if it’s alright if she has sex with Harry so that Harry and Geraldine can have a baby together.  Hugo [(4) right] is contemplative, not wanting to disappoint the vicar, but also not sure about ‘sharing’ his wife with Harry.  Hugo says that Harry is a nice bloke and he likes the Vicar, but that there are limits to friendship now and then.  Harry is aghast and embarrassed, hoping that Geraldine didn’t actually offer him up on a sexual platter to her scatterbrained but endearing friend Alice.  Geraldine rolls her eyes at everyone, but especially at Alice.  Geraldine tells Alice that she and Harry don’t need a ‘sexual’ surrogate, they need a surrogate ‘mother’ to carry their baby to term—with the embryo implantation taking place in a doctor’s office using Geraldine’s eggs and Harry’s sperm.  Of course, Harry squirms at his sperm being mentioned and unconsciously covers his crotch with his golfing tam hat.  Alice thinks for a moment, then tells Geraldine that that would be alright, too—just not as fun, for Harry.  Afterall, Alice feels that she “bewitches all men” with sexual desire for her.  With the confusion cleared up, the two couples all go on to have a lovely lunch made by Geraldine.  But with sex on everyone’s mind, there is some footsy playing that goes on under the dining table.  This leads Alice and Hugo to head home quickly—leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind what they will be doing once they get home.  Once the dam burst about Alice and Hugo being in love several years ago, there’s nothing stopping them sexually—as their ten children are a testament to.  Geraldine and Harry also walk upstairs for a loving tryst.

On another personal front, Geraldine also receives word  on Thursday of  that week that her family with Harry will be expanding—but not in a good way from Geraldine’s perspective, when she receives a letter from her long estranged younger sister Kate saying that she plans to visit Geraldine and Harry in Dibley in a few weeks.   This further annoys Geraldine because although she has invited Kate for other special occasions—her ordination, her installation at Dibley, and even her wedding to Harry—Kate never showed up, nor even responded.  So, Kate’s sudden announcement that she is coming for a visit—without being invited—doesn’t sit well with the vicar.  And, of course, Geraldine feels that as vicar, she should be a ‘model’ of familial harmony—something that she has with Harry, but not with her sister, Kate.   So, this rift between her and her sister causes internal conflict for Geraldine as she tries to rationalize her position—somewhat humorously at times—fracturing biblical verses to bolster her arguments for being estranged from her sister.  Shame on me Geraldine, she tells herself.  Geraldine and Harry have a long discussion about the estrangement and what Geraldine ‘wants’ to do versus what Geraldine thinks she ‘should’ do.  But, ultimately, Harry leaves it up to Geraldine to decide.  Harry lets Geraldine know that he’ll support her whatever she chooses to do.  Harry is a good bloke of a husband that way—always loving and supportive.  This chat also leads to Geraldine and Harry making love, again—with their biscuits and chocolate munchy fest after as usual.  Though Harry is not complaining about their increased frequency of lovemaking lately, he does wonder humorously to Geraldine if it’s him, or if it’s the chocolate munchy fest afterward that gets her all excited.  Afterall, Geraldine has been seeming to crave more chocolate than usual of late.  But, Geraldine assures Harry that her interest is all in him.  Then Harry and Geraldine kiss, they hug, and then Geraldine licks the melted chocolate off of her fingertips while they embrace.

The next day, Friday May 6^th, 2011, the Vicar Geraldine and Alice also have one of their ‘chats’ about this turn of events about her sister Kate—as Alice is being impregnated with Geraldine’s and Harry’s embryo at the doctor’s office.  Happily both Geraldine and Alice were ovulating this week and the doctors decided to strike with the ova were ‘hot’, so to speak.  Harry is standing nervously at the back of the exam room behind Alice’s head and away from the ‘business end’ of the proceedings—Harry having already ‘completed his assignment’ for his portion of the impregnation procedure, by producing sperm on demand in another exam room to his embarrassment and Geraldine’s amusement. Harry told Geraldine that he eschewed the usual ‘reading’ materials that one finds to assist men in donating their sperm by thinking only of her–and their little dividend to be.  And now as Alice is about to be impregnated with Geraldine’s and Harry’s embryo, Harry is not only squeamish about medical procedures, but he is extremely embarrassed to see Alice’s legs in the air in stirrups.  So, he tries focusing on posters on the wall to take his attention away from things–that is, until he realizes that he is studying a poster of a cross section of the female reproductive system and his face goes beet red.  Harry is only there because both Geraldine and Alice insisted that Harry be in the room when their baby is ‘conceived’.

And, for once, the scattered brained but sweet Alice just might have the right advice for Geraldine regarding her sister, Kate.  Lying down in stirrups always seems to bring clarity to Alice for some reason—maybe because she is in stirrups so often, with her own many pregnancies or maybe because in lying down more blood and oxygen get to Alice’s brain.  Anyway, Alice tells Geraldine that sisters are forever—no matter if they have hurts or spats with each other.  Just like Geraldine feels like the sister she’s never had to Alice.  This, of course, makes Geraldine tear up.  That is until Alice explains, that just like a sister would, Alice has had to overlook Geraldine’s bossy and sometimes overbearing nature because she loves her like a sister—just like the Vicar Geraldine has had to overlook men’s natural attraction to, her/Alice.  Geraldine smiles, but then she turns to Harry and asks him if he thinks she is sometimes bossy and overbearing.  Harry blinks several times–like an accountant caught in headlights–and says what all husbands should say when asked this question.  And that is, ‘no dear’ as he smiles lovingly at her.  But Geraldine looks a bit suspiciously at Harry wondering if he thinks she is bossy sometimes.  Knowing Geraldine’s look, Harry thinks ‘no sex tonight’.  C’est la vie.  Meanwhile, the doctor finishes impregnating Alice with Geraldine and Harry’s embryos.  Then, they just have to wait a few weeks to see if one of the embryos ‘take’.

At the end of the episode, it is three weeks later and the end of the school year in May 2011.  The Dibley Elementary School closes with much poignancy and a village farewell party on Saturday Night, May 28th.  Unfortunately, Harry could not join them because he is still in London working on some tax account–he is still only “a weekender in reverse” Dibley village resident who won’t be home until Sunday afternoon.  But Geraldine is eager to see Harry because Alice is still pregnant with Geraldine’s and Harry’s baby going into the fourth week after the embryo implantation and Geraldine is eager to share this good news with Harry in person.  But, after going home tired after the party Saturday night around 9:00pm, Geraldine has a completely unexpected visitor.  The episode ends with Geraldine hearing a knock at her cottage door and opening her door to a ‘stranger’.

To be continued with Episode 2

 

“Dibley Revisited”, Episode 2 – The Prodigal Sister Returns.

The episode opens with Geraldine opening her cottage door to her sister, Kate Granger [(5) right], after returning home that evening from the Dibley Elementary School Closing farewell party on Saturday, May 28^th, 2011.  But, Geraldine doesn’t recognize her sister at first.  It has been twelve years since Gerry has seen Kate.   And her sister is bit slimmer than Geraldine remembers–a bone of contention between the competitive sisters.  And Kate is taller than Geraldine remembers.  On top of that, her sister Kate, also calls her Gerry—which Geraldine detests, and Kate knows that.  Sisters sometimes like to ‘needle’ each other.  Geraldine feels that not only did the younger Kate get her way growing up, but Kate also got the better name—and no middle name involving one of their mother’s favorite movies–Mary Poppins.  And, since Harry hasn’t returned home to Dibley yet this weekend, Geraldine doesn’t have her strongest supporter at her side when Kate arrives.

Since it’s too late for Kate to find any place else to sleep for the night on Saturday—let alone travel back to London since she released her taxi–Geraldine reluctantly agrees to let Kate sleep on her couch.  And since Kate didn’t bring ‘appropriate’ nightclothes—Kate’s nightgown is too ‘revealing’ for Geraldine’s taste when she sees it—Geraldine loans her sister a pair of her PJ’s to wear.  Unfortunately, the only other clean pair of PJ’s Geraldine has at the moment are her favorite ones with the glow in the dark crosses and hearts on them.  So, Geraldine reluctantly loans her favorite PJ’s to Kate to wear.

But, as Kate sleeps on the couch in Geraldine’s darkened living room Saturday night, Harry arrives home a day early as a surprise for Geraldine.  He sees the sleeping form on the couch—with the glow in the dark crosses and hearts on the PJ’s.  Logically thinking that the sleeping form is his wife, Geraldine—and Harry is feeling frisky having been away from her for a few days.  So, Harry lies down beside the lady on the couch, spooning with her, embracing her, and pulling back her pj top to kiss her bare shoulder tenderly and sensually.  Mayhem erupts as Kate screams and Geraldine bounds down the stairs to find her husband with his arms around her sister when she turns on the light.  Realizing his mistake when he sees his wife standing in front of him—instead of being the person he’s spooning with–Harry falls off the couch and an argument ensues.

Geraldine blames both Kate and Harry for the mistake—though ‘nothing’ really happened.  Poor Harry is so embarrassed—not the least of which he was already ‘aroused’ with the notion of making love with his wife before he lay down with Kate—that he has to hold a couch pillow in front of his crotch while they all argue about the mix up.  It is a sputtering discussion marked by a pouting Harry, and amused Kate, and a not very amused at all Geraldine.  After cooler heads prevail—mostly Harry’s—everyone decides to get some sleep and talk it out in the morning.  And, although Harry was feeling frisky when he got home, Geraldine is in no mood now because she saw him mistakenly ‘almost groping’ her sister.  So, Harry and Geraldine head upstairs to their bedroom to sleep—unfortunately—for the rest of the night.   And Kate returns to sleeping on the couch.

The next morning brings an awkward breakfast—which Kate tries to lighten with uncharacteristic aplomb as she tries to assuage Geraldine’s long ago hurt feelings.  But Geraldine is still miffed about last night’s spooning and groping mix up—Harry is ‘her man’ and she doesn’t want Kate to get any ideas.  Attempting to smooth over the mixup, Kate reminds Geraldine that they are, afterall, the Granger Girls.   But, that reminder of their early childhood camaraderie goes over like a lead balloon with Geraldine —or Owen farting in church as he often does.   And, Harry is still exquisitely embarrassed about the mixup of him almost groping and kissing the wrong woman, the wrong sister—turning several shades of red and purple as he tries to referee between his wife Geraldine and her sister Kate.

But, it’s now Sunday morning, and that means church.  So, they will have to continue their discussion later.  And much to Geraldine’s chagrin, Kate opts to join them for Sunday Services—the Vicar’s sermon coincidentally being about The Prodigal Son, not knowing that her sister would turn up the day before.  At Harry’s prodding, Geraldine ends up introducing Kate to the village after Sunday church that day–when everyone enjoys cake and coffee in the parish hall.  Kate is a hit with everyone as she charms them while Geraldine fumes.   Kate is not unlike Geraldine—she is vivacious, witty, and saucy—just six years younger and a bit slimmer.  And Kate is also taller than Geraldine.  And, not surprisingly, the boys—David Horton [(6) right] and Owen, mostly, since Frank is gay and Jim and Hugo are married, to others that is—also take a fancy to Kate.  Geraldine mischievously tries to steer Kate toward the rude and lewd Owen.  But that backfires and it is David who charms Kate when he invites her out to lunch at the pub at Eastley after church.

Naturally, Geraldine tries to surreptitiously monitor Kate and David’s ‘date’ by she and Harry also lunching at the pub at Eastley.  But, of course, it’s hard to disguise a vicar in full collar and cross, let alone her tall and handsome husband.  So, Geraldine and Harry are ‘discovered’ snooping on Kate and David and then invited to join them for lunch.  Some squirming on Geraldine’s part occurs when Kate recounts some ‘fanciful’ stories from their childhood.  The sisters do some good natured ‘sniping’ at each other while the men—David and Harry—watch haplessly.  But then, Kate also tells some poignant stories of how she looked up to her older sister whom she called Dina as a small child—-because Kate couldn’t pronounce Geraldine—as Kate recalls the fun and loving times in their home before Gerry went off to university to study to be a ‘priestess’ as Kate used to tease her.  Then Kate’s mood changes while she recounts having to take care of their aging Mum while she was in school herself until their Mum died just before Gerry’s installation at Dibley after a four year stint as a junior priest in another parish.  So, Kate sounds a bit bitter at being ‘stuck’ with all the responsibility for their mother’s care—though she would not change the time she spent with their mother—while Gerry got to have a career.  It is revealed that the last time the two sisters saw each other was at their mother’s funeral twelve years ago when Kate was 28 years old and Geraldine was thirty four years old.  This was just before Geraldine was installed as Dibley’s Vicar.  The conversation is a bit deep for lunch, and for a pub.  But, at least booze is available to lubricate the conversation.  After lunch, Kate wisely accepts David’s offer for a ride in the country and Geraldine and Harry go home to let things cool off a bit.

That evening, Kate and Geraldine have a heart to heart talk. Both Geraldine and Kate say things to each other that need to be said.  And the Granger Girls start their way back to healing their fractured sister relationship.  That night, Harry is caring, attentive, and loving with his wife Geraldine as she talks with him about her feelings.  And, since Geraldine is feeling better physically than she has in several months, she and Harry make love—even though, they have a guest in their home.  Scandalous!

To be continued with Episode 3

“Dibley Revisited”, Episode 3 – Kate Needs Gerry’s Help

After a week long visit by Kate in Geraldine’s home, the two sisters are warming up to each other—a bit.  But Geraldine still doesn’t know why her sister has made contact with her after all of this time.  Geraldine feels that Kate has a ‘reason’—perhaps an ulterior motive–for her coming to visit Geraldine now, Geraldine tells Harry in some pillow talk one night.  That week Kate continues to see and be courted by David Horton.  Kate likes David.  Kate tells Geraldine that she thinks David is fun.  Geraldine now knows that her sister Kate is seriously disturbed.  Geraldine says this even though her best friend Alice, could probably be clinically diagnosed.  And Geraldine hopes that David won’t be disappointed when, she presumes, Kate dumps him and leaves town–her usual MO with men as Geraldine remembers it.

At the end of the week, the village will have a blood drive on Saturday morning that Geraldine encourages everyone to participate in.  But, Kate demures, saying that they probably don’t want her blood and making other excuses.  Besides, Kate says that she has to travel back to London on Friday and probably won’t be back in Dibley until Saturday afternoon.  This infuriates Geraldine because she is the one who planned the blood drive.  And Geraldine feels that if she can’t get her own sister to donate her blood, how can Geraldine convince anyone else to donate their blood?  Once again, Harry calms and soothes Geraldine’s ego.  And the blood drive turns out to be a resounding success with almost everyone in the village donating blood.  Even the boys—David, Hugo, Owen, Jim, and Frank—all give their blood.  And there are some amusing comments that each of them makes about ‘helping those in need’ (David), ‘doing the kind thing’ (Hugo), ‘giving others some of his ‘essence’’ (Owen), ‘no no no no no excuse not to give blood’ (Jim), and adding a new chapter in his meticulous diary of annual volumes about his life (Frank).  But, not to be outdone, Alice gamely says that she’s happy to ‘spill’ a little blood so that others might live.  Although, since Alice is still pregnant with Geraldine and Harry’s child, she is excused from donating blood.

It is now late Saturday afternoon—after the blood drive is over–and Geraldine and Harry are sitting around their living room cuddling and talking again about possibly adopting a child if for some reason their surrogate pregnancy with Alice doesn’t work out.  There are lots of kids who need families.  They do a little web surfing to find out more about adoption and whom they should contact.  It seems to Geraldine that her wish of them having a child might come true after all.  And Geraldine and Harry will make great parents.  Geraldine and Harry just don’t realize that their wish to adopt a child will become poignantly true for them all too soon.

There is a knock on their front door and Harry gets up to answer it.  When he opens their front door, Harry sees a mother and her small daughter.  Geraldine calls out to them, asking that if it’s Kate her errant sister.   Geraldine doesn’t get to finish her sentence because Harry shushes her firmly.  Harry lets the mother and child into the living room while leaving the child’s suitcase in the foyer.  Geraldine turns and looks over the back of the couch to see who is at their front door and is she astonished to find her sister Kate holding what looks to be about a 4 or 5 year old girl in her arms.  To Geraldine’s shock, Kate introduces the little girl to her Aunt Gerry—whom Kate has told her daughter about many times.  Then Kate tells Geraldine that this is her 4.5 year old daughter, Dina (7) right].  Geraldine smiles in recognition—because Dina was the name that a very young Kate called Geraldine—since Kate couldn’t pronounce her name Geraldine.

Little Dina smiles and wriggles out of her Mummy’s arms and skips over to her Aunt Gerry and says hello in a sweetly charming way that only little girls can.  Then the little girl spontaneously hugs her Aunt Gerry and asks her if she is the priestess of happiness who her Mummy always talks about?  The little girl chatters away like a magpie as she cuddles in her Aunt Gerry’s arms and charming the clerical collar off of the vicar.  Dina tells her Aunt Gerry that she’s almost 4.5 years old and she’ll get to celebrate her half birthday on June 25^th—so she gets two days of presents each year since she was born on Christmas Day.  Dina also says that she wants to grow up and be a priestess like her Aunt Gerry so she can help people like her Mummy told her Aunt Gerry does.  Geraldine is stunned, but her heart melts with hugging and talking with the little girl—her niece Dina who is named after her.  Kate sits down on the couch on the other side of Dina watching her daughter interact with her sister Geraldine.  Then Dina clasps her Mummy’s hand and then Dina clasps her Aunt Gerry’s hand and says while swinging their hands in hers ‘we’re the Granger girls’.  Both Kate and Geraldine give small smiles.  Harry asks if Dina is also going to be staying for a visit, too?  Kate pauses and asks Harry if he wouldn’t mind taking Dina outside to play on the swing set at the church next door so that she and Geraldine can talk.  He nods his head knowingly.  Harry realizes that the two sisters–the original Granger Girls—have a lot to talk about.

Geraldine is still in a state of shock and doesn’t know quite what to say about the revelation that she has a niece—Kate has a daughter.  After Harry walks Dina outside to play on the swing set at the church, Kate opens the conversation with her sister Gerry.  Kate explains that she couldn’t attend Gerry’s and Harry’s December 22^nd wedding 4.5 years ago because she was on hospital bed rest due to having a difficult pregnancy.  And even then, Dina was born almost a month early—on Christmas Day 2006.  Since Kate had been in the hospital and only had bills mail forwarded to her, she hadn’t received Gerry’s invitation before the wedding.  Then, with Dina being born prematurely and having to stay in the hospital for a month until her original delivery date—along with some other complications that both Dina and Kate had from the pregnancy—it was almost six months before Kate felt that she could get her head above water.  You see, Kate didn’t have a partner.  Dina’s ‘dad’ was a sperm donor.  Dina had always wanted a child and at 35 years old 5.25 years ago, she hadn’t found that lasting love of a lifetime that Gerry has with Harry.  So, Kate tells Geraldine that she became pregnant with Dina through the wonders of technology.  But, by the time Dina was six months old and finally healthy, Kate thought that it was too late to tell her sister, Gerry, about Dina.

Geraldine quizzically—but not accusingly–asks her sister Kate why she waited so long to contact her and introduce her to Dina, but Kate has now come forward?   Kate answers in a round about way.  As a successful lawyer—something that Geraldine also didn’t know—Kate has enough money to provide Dina with a very good standard of living.  Kate has most of the money set up in a trust for Dina.  Then Kate gets very quiet and she explains that she is running out of time.  Kate has a rare blood disorder that was discovered when Dina was two years old.  And though Kate has looked for treatments—and is on a bone marrow transplant list—they haven’t found a match and the doctor’s say that it is only a matter of time.  Geraldine is silent but now picks up her sister’s hand and holds onto it, with tears in her eyes.  You see, says Kate, she needs to find a loving home for Dina to have when Kate is gone.  And the only person Kate would ever think of entrusting her precious child Dina to is her beloved sister Gerry.  Kate asks Geraldine if she and Harry will become Dina’s guardians—and in time, adopt her after Kate is gone.  The Granger Girls look at each other tenderly, cry together, and hug each other warmly as loving sisters do.

To be continued with Episode 4

 

References

(1a)  Background for the “Dibley Revisited” composite Logo was found at http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/gallery/VOD/album/VODPromo/album/slides/vod03.html

(1b) Image of Richard Armitage portraying Harry Kennedy for the “Dibley Revisited” composite logo was found at http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/gallery/Richard/Promos/Recognisemag/slides/Recognise-3.html

(1c) Image of Dawn French portraying Vicar Geraldine Granger Kennedy for the “Dibley Revisited” logo was found at http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities-news-in-pics/07-07-2011/

(1d) Image of the sampled stone cross for the “Dibley Revisited” logo was found at http://media.jinni.com/tv/the-vicar-of-dibley/the-vicar-of-dibley-1.jpeg  photo by Ian Pleeth, 1994, BBC.

(2)  Jim Trott as portrayed by Trevor Peacock was found at http://images.wikia.com/vicarofdibley/images/e/ec/Jim_2.jpg

(3)  Alice Horton as portrayed by Emma Chambers was found at http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/gallery/VOD/album/VOD1/slides/vod1-015.html

(4)  Hugo Horton as portrayed by James Fleet was found at http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/gallery/VOD/album/VODPromo/album/slides/vod04.html

(5) Image of actress Ricki Lake representing Kate Granger was found at http://www.peoplequiz.com/images/bios/ricki-lake.jpg-11448.jpg

(6) David Horton as portrayed by Gary Waldhorn was found at http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/images/gallery/VOD/album/VOD2/slides/vod2-248.html

(7) Image of actress Hallie Eisenberg representing Dina was found at http://www.oocities.org/the_amazing_marieni/hallie1.jpg