Still hospitalized, Chuck was getting stronger every day. Tara had to stall whenever he brought up the subject of setting a new date for their wedding because she and Phillip were secretly dating. Phil's induction into the army scared Tara. On the night before Phil had to leave, Phil and Tara drove out of town to secretly marry.
It was a treacherous night. A blizzard had buried the roads in snow, and Phil and Tara were forced to abandon his car. If they stayed in it, they'd freeze. But they noticed a small shack just off the road and took shelter in it. Phil and Tara were alone in a snowstorm. They lit candles and exchanged their own private vows. With only God as their witness, right there in the middle of nowhere, on Phillip's last night before leaving for Vietnam, they became husband and wife. They made love, passionate, tender love for the very first time. And the next day, Phil Brent was Vietnam-bound.
Weeks later, Tara learned she was pregnant with Phil's child. She knew she had to tell Chuck that she couldn't marry him after all. And then the word came. Phillip was missing in action in Vietnam. Grieving for her son, Ruth continued to make impassioned pleas to end the folly of the Vietnam war.
And as both mourned for Phil, Chuck came up with the perfect solution for Tara's predicament - he asked Tara to marry him. Tara and Chuck got married quietly, and surprised everyone by announcing that they'd been married for weeks...and they were going to have a baby!
Phoebe Tyler's fondness for a drink now and then began to get out of hand, and Charles accepted some of the blame. He'd been leaving her home alone with nothing but a glass of sherry for companionship. Most evenings, Phoebe cried into her sherry over her husband's long hours at the hospital and her daughter Ann's consorting with that contemptible Nick Davis.
But nothing Phoebe could say could keep Ann from marrying Nick. They loved each other. Marriage was in the air in Pine Valley. Chuck and Tara, Ann and Nick, and at long last, Joe and Ruth. They had already become the couple most everyone in Pine Valley turned to for comfort, advice and friendship.
Ruth, Joe and Kate helped Joe's brother Paul deal with his unrequited love for Ann Tyler Davis, as she settled into her marriage with Nick. She wanted to give Nick a baby. They would be such wonderful parents. But Ann was unable to become pregnant.
Nick consulted a doctor, who revealed that his sperm count was so low it was unlikely he could father a child. He knew that if he told Ann, she'd tell him not to worry about it. But he also knew how much she wanted a baby. And it killed him knowing that he could never give her one. All he could give her, he decided, was her freedom.
Unwilling to give up on her marriage, Ann seduced Nick into one last night of love. Regretting the weakness of his resolve, Nick asked Ann for a divorce. He never told her why. Ann, convinced that somehow Nick had fallen out of love with her, was heartbroken. Pregnant with Nick's baby, she turned to her lawyer, Paul Martin. He told Ann that Nick didn't have to know about it. He would love to be the baby's father and her husband. Nick began a relationship with a dance instructor, Kitty Shea.
Tara gave birth to a little boy, and she and Chuck named him Charles Phillip Tyler. Tara's brother Jeff was ecstatic to have become an uncle! His wife Erica was less than enthusiastic. Being a small town doctor's wife was no longer her goal. Everything Jeff talked about bored her. His job. His friends. His dreams.
Erica's job at Ann's fashion Boutique had given her a taste of a far more glamorous life. And she wanted more. From the moment Erica met Jason Maxwell, she wanted him...to sign her up as a model at his agency. From the moment he met Erica, Jason wanted her...but not necessarily as a model.
Jeff was waking up to the fact that in Erica, he'd married a very self-involved, selfish young woman.
But he loved her. His best friend, Dr. Frank Grant explained that his wife Nancy had a career, and that they still had a happy marriage. Jeff made himself believe that he and Erica could live with her career. Not that he was lonely when Erica was out of town. More and more, he turned to Mary Kennicott for friendship.
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