Angel in the Family

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SYNOPSIS

          A woman voice is heard talking about the small things you miss about everyday life when you’re gone.  This is heard over the sound of a piano being played which drifts into the room of Sarah Bishop (Tracey Needham) and her live-in boyfriend Joe (Tommy Hinkley).  Joe is annoyed with the piano playing because he is a truck driver and has to get up early.  Sarah calms Joe down and goes to her father, Buddy Bishop (Ronny Cox), who is at the keyboard.  Buddy and Sarah have a difficult relationship.  She is very attentive to him despite the coldness.  He is getting old and isn’t healthy.  Since her mother, Lorraine, died three years ago, Sarah has been taking care of him. 

          Across the country, we meet wealthy lawyer David Collins (David Chisum) and his wife Beth (Natasha Gregson Wagner).  She, too, is a big earner by being a top PR executive.  They have careers and money, but their marriage is in trouble.  David wants to have kids.  Beth isn’t sure she wants to. 

          Joe leaves for a long truck drive.  He isn’t sure he’ll be back for Christmas.  Sarah takes Buddy to the post office with her to mail out hand painted magnets with slogans that she creates and then sells through the Internet.  Her mother used to have them all over the house and she left them to Sarah.

          Beth is in a big meeting when she receives an emergency call from Sarah and it is here we learn that they are sisters.  Sarah tells Beth that while at the post office, Buddy collapsed and probably had a stroke.  They’re rushing him to the hospital.  Beth annoys her because she’s not sounding too concerned, so she gets off the phone quickly.  These sisters have a big wedge between them.  Even the most benign conversation between them has tension. 

          Beth leaves a message for David and flies off to be with her father.  Sarah meets her at the airport and the bickering begins instantly.  When they return to the hospital, Buddy is gone.  He’s left the hospital.  They find him at a river overlook.  He doesn’t want to go back to the hospital.  He’s afraid of bad news.  He wants to go home, to the farm where the girls grew up, where he had a life with Lorraine.  He knows this might be his last Christmas, as do the girls because that’s what the doctors told them.

          Beth, Buddy and Sarah drive to the family farm.  On the drive we learn that Beth didn’t invite her family to her wedding because it was in Italy and she knew that Sarah couldn’t afford it.  They arrive at the farm and the house is covered with dust three years thick.  The girls clean up the house and Buddy gets a visit from Nellie Tomkins (Tess Harper), their neighbor and Lorraine’s friend, who offers to make them a meatloaf from the recipe Lorraine gave her just before she died.

          Sarah heads into town to go shopping for groceries and runs into Alex Croft (John Pyper-Ferguson).  They’ve known each other always.  They chat and there is chemistry there.  At the farm, Buddy walks the orchards and talks to ‘Lorraine’ about how he’s let her down because he hasn’t been there to tend the trees.  While Sarah is at the store, Buddy admits that Beth was their favorite kid growing up.  He seems to have resentment for Sarah becoming an alcoholic and a drug user even though she is clean and sober now and has been taking care of him since Lorraine died. 

          The family sits down to dinner, but the meatloaf doesn’t taste like it did when Lorraine made it.  Sarah and Beth argue, as usual about their father and Beth’s lack of interest in his care.  Sarah can’t take it anymore. She goes outside and prays for her mom’s help with the family.  It was Lorraine that always kept them all together.  Sarah asks, “Where are you now when we need you?”

          Sarah wakes the next day to find Beth packing to go home to her husband and her work. They argue once again and when Sarah returns to her room she finds that all the beds in the house have been made and someone baked a homemade apple pie.  She assumes her father or Beth did the chores, but they both tell her no.  Then Alex comes for a visit bringing a big Christmas tree.  Beth starts flirting with him.  It turns out they used to date.  Sarah feels left out once again as Beth dominates the conversation with Alex.  She goes off to get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. 

          Later that evening Sarah and Beth see their father walking in the orchard holding hands with a woman.  They figure he wanted to come to the farm because he has a girlfriend here.  Beth is angry.  Sarah thinks it’s cute. 

          Beth decides it’s time to leave.  Her dad seems fine.  She wants to spend Christmas with her husband.  As she goes down to the living room to say goodbye, she sees that the woman her father was with is with her mother, Lorraine (Meredith Baxter).  She is the picture perfect farm wife with her apron on and carrying a tray of cinnamon rolls.  The room is perfect.  The lights are on the Christmas tree.  Buddy is happy as can be.  Beth can’t believe her mother has come back from the dead.

          Beth and Sarah take a while to adjust and to believe that their mother has appeared.  Buddy seems completely fine with it all, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.  Lorraine tells her daughters that she’s there to fix things and that she heard Sarah praying for her to come back.  She thinks it is only for a short while.  She and the girls head up to the attic to at old photo albums.  While there, Beth and Sarah start bickering again, and Beth blurts out that she’s pregnant, but she’s torn because she’s not sure if she is ready to be a mother.

          Lorraine sees the leftover meatloaf and admits when she gave the recipe to Nelllie, she didn’t include all the ingredients because she didn’t her to be able to take her place.  She feels bad and asks Sarah to bring the correct recipe to Nellie and to return a library book she never returned before she died.  Sarah is annoyed that her mother is asking her to do such petty stuff, but does it anyway.

          Beth and Lorraine walk in the orchard and talk about Beth’s marriage troubles and her fears of having a child.  She is angry at her parents for favoring her and not giving her the strength to function better as an adult because her childhood was so easy.

          In town, Sarah runs into Alex again at the local bar and they end up dancing and talking.  They really like each other. 

          Lorraine is deeply annoyed about the tension in the family.  Just as she’s complaining to Buddy, he collapses. 

          Sarah returns home to find Buddy in bed.  Lorraine says it’s not his time yet. Buddy talks to Sarah and thanks her for taking care of him for the last three years and he tells her he loves her.  Beth gives her a hard time because she smells like a bar and she suspects she was with Alex, which she was.

          Joe calls Sarah and they discuss their relationship.  He offers to come up to the farm, but she tells him it is just not working out.  Beth tries to explain to her father why she hasn’t visited him that much.  She tells him about the baby.  He tells her having a baby is a big decision, but life is about change. 

Lorraine and Sarah are in the kitchen talking about her breakup with Joe.  Sarah admits that she gets so tired of being the strong one.  She admits that she always wondered if she really was Lorraine’s daughter because she always felt like the outsider.  That’s why she turned to drugs and alcohol.  Lorraine tells her she loves her, but that she came too early.  They weren’t ready to be parents, and she’s sorry. 

Lorraine tells Sarah she has to leave soon and wants the whole family together for one last Christmas.

          The family sits down by the tree to have Christmas.  Lorraine gives Beth her grandmother’s locket that was lost 20 years ago.  One side is empty and Lorraine tells her that is where she can put a picture of her new family.  Lorraine gives Sarah a scrapbook she did for her when she was a baby, but she put it away too soon never showed it to Sarah.  Lorraine gives Buddy a box that contains memories of their wonderful life together.  It radiates a beautiful light.  Then it is time for Lorraine to go.  They gather around the piano for one last Christmas Carol, but when the song is finished, Lorraine is gone.  He runs outside after her and asks her to take him with her.  She tells him that he still has work left to do.  They tell each other they love each other and she leaves. 

          Unexpectedly, David drives up to the house.  He missed Beth and wanted to be with her on Christmas.  Beth is excited to tell him the good news.

          At the local store, Sarah and Buddy run into Alan.  She tells him that her relationship with Joe is over and that she and her father have decided to stay at the farm for awhile. Alan wishes them a Happy New Year.

          “For the first time in a long while,” Buddy says, smiling at Sarah and Alan, “I truly think it will be.”

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