Most everyone
knows that Ashley Abbott was mugged in a park because she'd been dumb enough
to go strolling alone in a dimly lighted park at night and was saved by the
mysterious Kurt Costner. As time went on the blind as a bat Hopeless 'Plain
Jane" Adams Newman took an interest in Kurt too and thanks to what was
called "a way about her that encouraged people to open up", Kurt began
confiding in Jane about some of the most intimate details of his life.
He told her that his wife and daughter had died in a car wreck in Cape Cod
and Jane shared this information with Ashley. Wanting Kurt to confront his
past, Ashley bought two plane tickets to Cape Cod and no sooner had she
arrived at Kurt's old home snatched a sealed letter from Kurt's dead wife,
Linda.
The letter told of Linda's having fallen out of love with Kurt and having
found another man. Kurt didn't know about the letter and when Ashley
returned to Genoa City without him she struggled with her conscience as to
whether she should tell him. Kurt returned later, asked Katherine Chancellor
if he could stay at the mausoleum in exchange for work and granted his
request found that not only was the old woman infatuated with him, but the
woman's ditzy maid was too.
What Katherine didn't like was that Kurt was so moody so she decided to play
matchmaker by inviting Ashley to dinner. Kurt was pissed at first, but
slowly came around before returning to the cape to put his home up for sale.
Ashley tagged along and when Kurt found a stash of incriminating photos of
Linda she gave him the letter. Coincidentally, Linda's lover stopped by
pretending to be an interested home buyer. What Grant really wanted was the
photos but Kurt caught on, pulled a gun and might have killed Grant had not
Grant's wife appeared to plead for her husband's life. Afterwards, Kurt
burned the photos and the letter and said it was time to move on with his
life.
It must have been fate that one night while dining out with Victor, Jane
choked on a piece of meat and might have died had not Kurt been eating too
at a nearby table. Quickly saving Jane from choking, it was revealed that
Kurt was, or had been, a doctor. Victor was so impressed he offered Kurt a
job in the medical profession which Kurt refused. Alas, Kurt eventually
opened a medical clinic on the poor side of town where Jane worked for him
as a receptionist.
When giving medical care away for free turned out not to be profitable, Kurt
left town and so did Jane with Victor's kid. For the longest time it was
thought that Kurt went to Kansas with Jane but this was never substantiated.
As for Victor, he went on to take up with Diane Jenkins much to Jack
Abbott's squawking that he had lost yet another woman to the great man,
Victor and Diane were married, she lied to him about having Jack's baby and
everyone knows how that turned out.
Before she left, Jane was supposed to get the dead eyes belonging to the
woman Jack said would be the only one he'd ever love, Saigon Sally, um, Luan
Volein. Before kicking the bucket, Luan and Jack spewed how they were each
other's angels, how they'd changed the other's life, had God to thank for
bringing them together and until then didn't believe in miracles. Saddled
with a "mystery disease", Luan was taking medicine prescribed by a "Dr. ToeJam" even though the doctor had no idea what was wrong with her. On the
day she died, Luan took some pills and then began rolling her eyes. She made
it to her bed and reaching for her Bible clutched it to her bosom as her
eyes continued whirling. In the process Luan knocked a vase off the
nightstand.
Downstairs, old man John Abbott heard the crash. He raced upstairs and
seeing Luan repeatedly called out her name. When she didn't respond John
started calling 911 but was so fascinated with watching Luan's eyes spin he
just stood there. By the time he made the call it was too late. Luan was
dead. When paramedics arrived John told them that Luan was an organ donor
and one of the medics was thought to have whispered to the other, "We
already have an organ."
Downstairs, Luan's son, Keemo, and daughter Mai, got the bad news right as
their mother's body was being wheeled away. No medical examiner was ever
called and despite knowing Luan was an organ donor, no effort was made to
keep her organs on ice. If Jane had ever had a hope of seeing again, it went
down the toilet that day.
Specifically, Hope was supposed to get Luan's corneas, but it had already
been established that to make Jane see again she would require new retinas.
At the time the GCN raised holy hell about this and as always its plea for
a semblance of credibility was ignored.
As for Keemo, he was outraged that Jack hadn't told him about Luan's
disease. He screamed that Jack had "robbed" him. It was said later that
Luan's eyes were on ice and ready to be inserted into Jane's head. Only now,
Jane was in Kansas. In a way, that Jane didn't get Luan's eyes was a good
thing because some people were outraged that with so many others on the
waiting list, giving eyes to Jane when she wasn't on the list at all was
unfair. Even Dr. Olivia Winters agreed. "It is my professional opinion that
those eyes should be given to someone who can use them before it's too
late," she said.
Stranger still, within hours of her death, Luan was stuffed in a box and put
on display at the Six Feet Under Funeral Home. Not a single family member
ever paid their respects. For one thing, Keemo had split the city leaving
his sister to run her mother's restaurant, the Saigon Shack, alone. The one
person who did show was Jane! As it came about, Victor was driving by the
funeral home when he must have picked up Jane's scent. Inside the funeral
home he asked what Jane was doing there and she said she was in town to see
an ophthalmologist! Victor kissed her on the lips and was shocked to see the
wedding ring on her finger belonging to Cliff.
Agreeing to stay on the 35th floor with Victor because every hotel room was
booked, Jane was taken aback when Victor asked to see a photo of Victor
Newman Jr. "Do you really want to?" she actually said. When Nikki found out
Jane was in town she called Cliff, and with a disguised voice, warned that
his wife was with Victor. Cliff trusted Jane so he didn't care. Later, when
Victor asked how Cliff was treating her, Jane said, "I married a man who is
truly a part of my world." Then, with snot pouring out her nose, Jane told
Victor, "You and I come from two entirely different worlds."
When Jane returned to Kansas, Victor began thinking about his next conquest,
the creepy Christine 'Bug' Blair who Victor said, "When I'm with her I feel
thirty years younger. The woman is vibrant. A breath of fresh air, she gets
the blood flowing in these old veins." Fortunately, nothing ever came of a
Blair/Newman affair maybe because earlier the Bug had said she considered
Victor the father she never had, although she had a father she'd pretty much
forgot about.
