Ruth Fowler

Ruth was Mark Fowler's second wife and she was far more comfortable with his HIV status than many of his other girlfriends. However their marriage eventually disintegrated due to Mark's inability to provide Ruth with a child. They split and she strayed with Mark's cousin, Conor Flaherty. Her betrayal deeply hurt Mark, but it also gave her the chance to be a mother, as she fell pregnant with Conor's child.

1 Storylines
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Storylines

Ruth was first seen in July 1994.^[1] She was visiting her terminally ill friend, Anna, at an AIDS hospice. Mark Fowler was also visiting his friend, Joe Wallace, but arrived too late and was told that Joe had already died — dying of an AIDS related illness. Ruth was seemingly unable to cope with her friends deterioration, and after Mark showed concern the pair decided to go and drown their sorrows at a nearby pub. Ruth was from Edinburgh in Scotland and had come to London along with her friend, Anna, several years earlier. Ruth relayed that she felt extremely guilty about Anna's condition, because it was she who had persuaded her to come to London, and while Anna had lived a quiet existence in Scotland, she had been a bit of a wild child and led her astray. In London Anna had got involved with a drug user and subsequently contracted HIV. Even though it was not her fault, Ruth felt responsible and wished that she were the one lying in the hospital and not Anna. Mark, who was living with HIV himself, also had many reasons to be morose and they proceeded to get drunk together.^[2]

The following week, Ruth's friend died and she came to Walford in search of Mark. The pair bonded some more whilst drowning their sorrows once again, and Ruth became a frequent visitor over the following weeks. Ruth was struggling to find work as a child-minder and was considering returning to Scotland. By this time Mark had grown quite attached to her and so he persuaded his sister, Michelle, to allow Ruth to stay at their house, in exchange for some baby-sitting. It wasn't long before Mark had decided he was in love with her and he was unable to cope with Ruth as just a friend. He believed there was no chance they could be together due to his illness, so he instructed her to leave. Mark spent several weeks drinking and feeling sorry for himself, until Ruth returned and told him she loved him too. They realised that they would have to be cautious regarding Mark's HIV, but decided to make a go of the relationship anyway.^[3]

Ruth was an instant hit with Mark's family, even his mother Pauline. She was strong willed and abrasive, which didn't always endear her to everybody, but despite this everyone generally agreed that she was extremely good for Mark. Ruth became close friends with Gita Kapoor, and found employment at Walford's day care centre as a child-minder.

[edit] Ruth and Mark's wedding

In 1995 Mark and Ruth decided to purchase number 55 Victoria Road from the owner, Rachel Kominski, who had been renting it to them. Ruth then shocked Mark by proposing to him in the café one afternoon, and a delighted Mark accepted. However whilst most people were happy for them, Ruth's father, a strict presbyterian minister, was not. He gave his blessing on the condition that they had the ceremony in Scotland. Ruth agreed but opted not to tell him about Mark's HIV status, preferring to wait until he got to know him first. Mark was uncomfortable about having to lie, but went along with Ruth's wishes.

Ruth and her husband, Mark.

In April, Mark, the other Fowlers and Michelle's boyfriend Geoff Barnes all travelled to Scotland for the wedding. Ruth's parents, Hugh and Maureen, were teetotallers and extremely strict. The atmosphere was frosty, mainly because Ruth's father was upset that she was not having her wedding in a church. Despite her religious background, Ruth was an atheist and refused to get married in a church just to please her father. Ruth's parents quizzed the couple about having children, which prompted her to respond that they hadn't even considered it and may never have children. This upset her parents and the Aitken's began to bicker. Things got worse when Mark decided to tell them about his HIV status. The Aitken's responded with trepidation and ignorance, refusing to distinguish between AIDS and HIV — despite Mark's best efforts at explaining. They then decided that Mark must be contagious and refused to allow him to remain in their house; proclaiming that he represented everything that they had spent their lives fighting against! Unable to sway Ruth's misinformed bigotted parents, Mark decided to leave and go to a hotel instead. Pauline attempted to change the Aitken's minds and seemed to be making progress with Maureen. However Hugh was adamant that they could not accept Ruth's decision.

The day of the wedding came, and Ruth was pleasantly surprised when her mother turned up for the ceremony. Her father also turned up, hoping to be able to give Ruth his blessing, but once there he found that he couldn't. He asked her to come home with him and cancel the wedding, and told her that if she didn't he would disown her. Mark was furious, but Ruth decided to ignore her father and she married Mark anyway.^[4]

[edit] Baby blues

Not long after they married Ruth and Mark started to argue. Ruth had persuaded herself — and Mark — that she was happy about not having any children, but it became obvious that she was fooling herself and her husband. They decided to visit a counsellor to discuss their options. The counsellor told them that they had three, they could have unprotected sex on the one day that Ruth is most fertile and hope for pregnancy with the minimum risk of her catching the HIV virus, they could Adopt, or Ruth could undergo artificial insemination by Donor. The couple mulled over their options and eventually decided that having a child was not very practical given Mark's short life expectancy.

Money was tight for the Fowlers during 1996, and so Ruth and Mark moved in with Pauline for a while and rented out their property for extra money. Ruth took on a side job babysitting for Kathy Mitchell, but problems arose when Kathy's son, Ben, fell ill under Ruth's care. Ben had meningitis, but Grant Mitchell wrongly believed that Ruth had given the child the illness, because she was living with a HIV carrier. He informed Kathy, and soon everyone knew about Mark's HIV status; causing many bigoted people to boycott his stall. The Fowlers endured undue prejudice for several months, but Mark and Ruth eventually managed to provide some much needed education on the topic and the persecution eventually subsided.

Ruth's desire to be a parent resurfaced in 1997, and so she and Mark decided to solve the problem by applying to be foster parents. They went through months of agonising interviews and home visits, but were eventually deemed appropriate fostering candidates. They moved back to their house in Victoria Road and in October 1997 they were given their first child, Jessie Moore. Six year old Jessie was a withdrawn and deeply troubled child, whose mother was in prison on remand for drug offences. Jessie refused to speak or acknowledge the wishes of her foster parents initially. She was also a bedwetter and Mark and Ruth seemed unable to get her to open up to them, but they eventually managed to make progress and became extremely attached to the child.

Towards the end of the year Ruth was forced to return to Scotland to tend to her father, who had suffered a stroke and later died. While she was away Jessie received a letter from her mother informing her that she was being released. When Ruth arrived home and discovered that Jessie had visited her mother in prison, she was furious, even more so when she was told that Jessie would possibly be returning to her mother shortly. Her unhappiness was directed solely at Mark, and as they argued Ruth began to grow closer to Mark's cousin, Conor Flaherty, who was lodging at their house. The unexpected arrival of Jessie's mother, Nicole, sent their lives into further upset when she declared that she was taking steps to take Jessie back into her care.^[5]

Mark and Ruth tried to contest Nicole's decision, but were told that reuniting children with their parents was what fostering was all about. Both became depressed, which was made worse by Mark's jealousy regarding Ruth's relationship with Conor. When Jessie was returned to her mother in March, Mark and Ruth's relationship went into a swift decline. Amidst constant rowing and jealousy, Mark moved out of their house and in with his mother on the night of their wedding anniversary. Ruth began drinking heavily and attempted to seduce Conor the same night, but was turned down. Conor admitted to fancying her, but refused to sleep with her because she had been sleeping with a HIV carrier, and berated her for being irresponsible. This deeply offended Ruth and when Mark discovered what had happened, he declared that their marriage was over.

[edit] Affair with Conor

Now free and single, Ruth began to spend her time partying, clubbing and enjoying her freedom. After having a HIV test and discovering she was in the clear, Conor decided that he wanted to begin a relationship with her, but Ruth was not about to forgive his past rejection. Her wild behaviour earned her the admiration of the Welsh barman, Huw Edwards, and he began to develop quite a crush on her. However her partying and neglect of her property eventually caught up with her, and she soon found that she was unable to pay the bills. Conor then decided that he was sick of living in a slum, and promptly moved out, leading to Ruth drunkenly attacking him in The Queen Vic one night; furious that he was leaving. Pauline intervened and promised to bail Ruth out with money, hoping that it would stop her moving away from Walford. She still hoped that Ruth and Mark would reconcile, but as the year wore on it became clear that this was not going to happen. Ruth and Conor remained distant for a while, but eventually managed to patch up their differences.

Huw pursued Ruth, inviting her out on dates and Ruth accepted, although it was purely platonic on her side. She unwittingly got his hopes up by inviting him over to her place for dinner, but he was distressed to discover that Conor had been invited along too. Seeing Huw's disappointment, Ruth decided to put him out of his misery and told him she only saw him as a friend. She viewed Conor differently though, and they ended the night in bed together.

They conducted their affair in secrecy, worrying about the repercussions should Pauline and Mark discover what was going on. However Mark did discover that Ruth was seeing someone else, but wrongly assumed it was Huw. After attacking Huw one night, he was forced to realise that he still loved his wife and decided he wanted her back. He marched over to hers one evening, intending to confess his love, but Ruth and Conor were in bed together at the time, and she refused to answer the door to him. Meanwhile, Ruth began to see a different side to Conor after they carelessly had unprotected sex one night. Conor, fearful that Ruth could possibly be pregnant, demanded that she take a morning after pill, just to be sure. Ruth protested, and felt angry about the pressure Conor was putting her under. She eventually told him that she had taken the pill and screeched at him for treating their night of passion like a huge mistake. Conor agreed that it was a mistake and decided to end their affair, much to Ruth's dismay. Unbeknown to Conor, Ruth hadn't taken the pill, and in January 1999 she was told that she was pregnant.

Although the circumstances were not ideal, Ruth had always wanted to be a mother and she decided to keep the child. Conor's daughter, Mary, soon figured out Ruth was pregnant, and when Ruth denied that the father was Mark she did some detective work and correctly guessed that it must be Conor. Mary was adamant that Ruth inform Mark, but she refused and planned to leave Walford before he found out. This was not to be, as Mary accidentally informed Mark anyway, thinking Ruth had already done so. Furious and hurt, Mark beat Conor up and berated Ruth. Conor was amazed to learn that he was to be a father again, and immediately went to Ruth and offered to make another go of their relationship. However Ruth opted to bring her child up alone and left Walford for Scotland, rejecting both Conor and Mark on her way out. Her last appearance was in February 1999.^[6]

Soon after, Conor and Mary both left Walford in search of Ruth.