Days: Alice Horton Tribute

Earlier this year, Frances Reid passed away, and Days of Our Lives created a story in which her character Alice Horton became ill and died. Over the last few episodes, characters from Salem’s past returned to pay their respects and say goodbye to Alice Horton.
 
Alice Horton was a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great great-grandmother. In the course of celebrating her life, her son Bill and daughter Marie came home. Bill’s children Mike, Jennifer and Lucas along with his former wife Laura also returned. Melissa, who had recently come back to town when her adoptive father Mickey died, returned to say goodbye to her grandmother. Family friends also came to pay their respects like Carrie, Kayla, and Kimberly. We caught up on the lives of these characters and how it influenced what was going on in Salem. Kayla and Melissa interacted with their children Stephanie and Nathan who are dating. Carrie talked with Sami about her mother kidnapping Sami’s child Sydney. Carrie also interacted with two of her former husbands who also returned as they both are Alice’s grandchildren. Bill vowed to take care of Maggie, since Mickey has died. The rivalry between Laura and Kate didn’t end even if neither woman was involved with Bill. We also were told that Maggie’s illness was back in check. Mike missed saying goodbye to Alice as he was in a car accident and stuck in the hospital through her services.
 
Watching old clips with Alice and seeing people remember her took me back to what Days of Our Lives once was. Alice and her late husband Tom who passed away about 15 years ago equal the heart of the program. Their family and friends are the backbone of Salem. If Days had taken three or four episodes and just focused upon Alice and her family, I would have been happy. The most glaring misstep the show made was not having Alice’s death being announced as the final scene, instead they showed Chloe finding out she was pregnant. It was too bad that Julie’s family (the Bannings) were forgotten other than a mention in passing during the flashback and that Hope and Bo’s son and granddaughter were not talked about as they are out of town. I also would have preferred seeing more of the guests on Monday’s episode, but beyond that I was happy with what we did see. There weren’t just clips of Alice with her children, grandchildren and those married into the family. We also saw Abe remembering Alice as he arrested her many years ago. I was amazed we didn’t get footage of Doug who has been married into the Horton family for years, singing to Tom and Alice, though we had Tom and Alice speaking their vows on videotape.
 
We didn’t see Alice’s funeral, but were told that she had planned it. Even with an unlimited budget trying to imagine such a huge event, would be difficult. We saw everyone leaving flowers on her casket. Lucas put a smaller picture of Tom to go along with the larger one of Alice. Now Tom and Alice were reunited. Alice and Tom live on in the hearts of not only the people in Salem, but the viewers who have watched Days of Our Lives long enough to love them.