Sally Fletcher Tribute
1996
Despite Jack being tempted by Chloe in her absence she and Jack reunited and Michael was forced to accept them. Determined to find somewhere they could be alone together they began sneaking into Caravans until Michael finally gave them the use of one in order to keep their relationship away from the younger kids. Chloe though was a constant threat to their relationship as Jack became obsessed with her relationship with Curtis fuelling Sally's doubts that she was second best. They rowed further when Sally gave their Caravan up to a broken man Brendan who needed a place to stay and realising they were too different, they broke up soon after.
Upset at the sudden death of Shane Sally was swayed by the arguments of a lonely old man who was convinced that sally was the reincarnation of his daughter Caitlin. Caitlin had died in a car crash and Mr Moss had spent his life feeling guilty about not swerving in time to save her. He and Sally instantly shared an enexplainable connection and Sally started to believe that maybe his theory was true.
Pippa and Michael were worried but Sally refused to give up on the friendship and even agreed to go and view their old house to see if she remembered it. On the way there a car came out of nowhere and in echoes of Caitlin's accident Mr Moss was forced to swerve and saved Sally's life but ended his own. Sally was gutted at his death but the accident convinced her that he had been telling the truth and that her being reincarnated was for the purpose of letting him saved her life and in doing so atone for Caitlin's death.
Sally was worried sick when she heard that Michael had been washed into a swollen river after saving Sam in a storm but she comforted Jack who felt guilty about not holding onto him. Pippa did her usual trick of acting like nothing had happened when Steven broke the news that they had found Michael's body and this time directed her anger at Jack. It was Sally who did the everyday things and comforted Christopher and Sam and held the family together. On the morning of the funeral she broke down just as she was due to go into the church sobbing that she couldn't go in and she had to be comforted by Shannon. She stood up to read a poem at Michael's funeral but in a move that was echoed years later at Flynn's funeral, she broke down and couldn't go on so Shannon came to stand at her side and finish the reading. Later after the wake, in echoes of Tom's death, Sally went to Pippa's room and joined her on the bed telling her it was okay to cry. Pippa finally broke down and they held each other, sobbing.
What followed was a time of turmoil for Sally as she continued to loathe the presence of Michael's son Haydn and Jack, still struggling with guilt, left the bay to join the Navy. She suffered a head injury in the earthquake when the school collapsed.
She struck up a strange friendship with Jesse McGregor but with Michael and Jack gone, plus Shane and Angel and new, younger kids arriving at the caravan Park, Sally began a time of turmoil.
Having not had a boyfriend since Jack she set her cap at a succession of guys including Curtis but they either rejected her or as in Curtis's case, failed to notice her existence. She kissed Charlie, who she didn't even really like, just because he showed an interest but was disgusted with herself and got drunk. She was found sobbing by Selina and Shannon and she confided in them that she hated herself and that boys didn't like her.
Shannon and Selina decided to cheer her up by taking a raft out onto the river but tragedy struck when the raft fell apart and all three were deposited in the river. Shannon and Selina managed to swim to safety but there was no sign of Sally. Her shoe was found deep in the bush leading to the realisation that she hadn't drowned but that she had either run away or been taken.
She was missing for weeks as a frantic search was underway and everyone became desperately worried. It was Steven who refused to give up on her, determined to redeem himself after a bad patch he became convinced that Sally was alive but only just. His relentless search was rewarded when he found Sally in the nick of time. She had been held captive by a schizophrenic man called James Grace. Suffering from the effects of being in the river and being kept captive, Sally was desperately ill by the time they found her. Luckily she made a full recovery.
