What's in a Name?

Holly Doherty

Holly Doherty (ne. Baird)- Scottish ancestry; Formerly a tender and loving woman, Holly Doherty is the disgruntled mother of Shelby Doherty, whose heart has been embittered with resentment following her divorce from her daughter's biological father. Prior to her separation from her former husband, a sales manager at a paper company named Todd with whom Holly quickly became besotted, she was known to be very doting and affectionate with her spouse, leading a relatively happy, stable lifestyle. Described as having been kindly and mild in temperament, Holly had ambitions of furthering her education after receiving her Bachelor's in Political Science, aspiring to serve for the betterment of humanity and put her skills to practice to work on the social policy issues that generally impact people. Shelby's untimely birth put a strain on her relationship with Todd however, as the pair struggled financially with their working-class backgrounds upon graduating from college. Holly quickly fell into a depression shortly after Shelby's birth and struggled to embrace her new duties as a mother and maintain a warm relationship with her husband. She was unable to work due to her psychological condition for a significant amount of time and quickly found her relationship with Todd deteriorating due to continuous misunderstandings and miscommunication. Todd eventually became increasingly distant and despondent and began to argue more frequently with his wife, abandoning his previously gentle demeanor. Once an argument between himself and Holly escalated and culminated in her slapping him across the face, the two separated due to irreconcilable differences, with Todd estranging himself from his former wife and daughter and moving away to pursue a new life in Mobile, Alabama. 

As a relatively young mom, Holly is often seen as a pretty woman who often has a hard expression in her eyes. She is somewhat short with a feminine figure and has dark green eyes, ivory skin, and long dark auburn hair that falls wavily towards her mid-back. She is considered attractive by many of Shelby's male classmates and often regarded as a "sugar mama" and the "ultimate milf". Nonetheless, Holly became an angry person and began to project her hostility onto her daughter, whom she perceived to physically be the spitting image of her father, after having previously been blindly in love with her ex-husband for many years. Sloane misplaced anger often affected Shelby negatively, plaguing her with self-doubt and numerous insecurities, as well as a poor self-image. She is seldom demonstrative with her daughter and has a snarky, despondent attitude when interacting with her, with neither being able to communicate properly or effectively with one another. Her anger can be described as cold and condescending, with her often being overly harsh and hard on her daughter. Unable to continue her studies due to her pregnancy and find work in her field, Holly now works as a receptionist at an optometric office and neglects her daughter for extended periods of time in favor of her work. She and Shelby often tended to avoid or ignore each other when at home together and had a strained relationship throughout the years. Holly experiences a scare however once Shelby is found collapsed on her bed running a high fever by her friend Daniela, leading to her being rushed on an emergency visit to the hospital, during which she undergoes surgery to heal the infection caused by a ruptured appendix. 

Holly briefly shows her more humane side as she shows concern for her daughter and the possibility of losing her, and although their relationship remains somewhat difficult following the events, she begins to show a softer side to Shelby and make more efforts to bond with her on occasion. The tension in their relationship intensifies however once Shelby falls into a deep depression and has an emotional breakdown her freshman year of college, during which a near sexual assault on campus causes her to lose focus on her studies and be placed on academic probation at Northeastern University. The mixed feelings of anxiety she experiences during her situation, combined with bottled up emotions from her previous social struggles in her adolescence, cause Shelby to become dissociated and delusional, as well as increasingly argumentative with Holly. This leads Shelby to attack Holly physically and verbally as she breaks a wall in the household, releasing the pain she had felt in the years of being neglected and emotionally abused by her mother. Holly, in a state of panic, calls the police on Shelby, leading to her being arrested and charged with physical assault, although she later bonds Shelby out. She tries to help her daughter with her situation upon regretting her decision, assuring the police that all she'd ever wanted was for her daughter to receive help. She urges Shelby to get help for her emotional issues and has Shelby briefly hospitalized in an inpatient clinic, during which she is initially misdiagnosed as Bipolar. She is later treated for Major Depressive Disorder while receiving continuous therapy throughout the summer through outpatient care, and eventually an LCSW named Luisa Favela. 

Despite the concerns of her psychiatrist, Shelby insists on returning to her classes in the fall of that year and is later released from treatment by the end of the summer before her sophomore year of college, being left under the supervision of Holly in the meantime. Shelby's mental health struggles bring her closer to her mother, who works to have her assault charge dismissed and bring justice to Shelby once she learns of the sexual harassment she experienced while in college. Her daughter's battle with mental illness causes Holly to reflect on certain aspects in her life and make attempts to forgive the past and move forward, as she tries to be sympathetic to her situation and treat Shelby with more kindness and affection. Much of Holly's past pain is healed once she receives an unexpected letter from Todd, whom confesses that the reason from his distancing himself from the family was due to his previous diagnosis with an aggressive tumor in his pancreas that was shown to be malignant, causing him to want to leave the household to prevent his wife and daughter from seeing him suffer through his illness. He tells Holly that although he was in remission for some time and had seemingly recovered, his cancer had suddenly resurfaced in a terminal state after spreading to his lungs. He writes that his distancing himself from Holly had been as a means of pushing her away and causing her to stop caring about him, to make his eventual death less painful for them both and their daughter. He claims to have never stopped loving Holly however or caring for her and his daughter and to have regretted his choices, wishing he could have been around to support his wife and see Shelby blossom into the young woman she had become. 

He also admits to secretly still trying to help them both from afar, bringing Holly to the realization that the "large check" she had received that had previously helped her buy herself and Shelby a new home in Long Island had been a gift from Todd himself, who had since quit his work as a sales manager and been earning his living instead as an entrepreneur. Holly finally experiences a sense of inner peace as she and Shelby cry upon reading the letter and embrace one another, wishing to put their past miscommunication with one another aside and mend their strained bond. Their relationship improves substantially over the years, with Holly becoming close to and involved in the lives of her three granddaughters once Shelby eventually marries James Masterson and births children of her own. Holly can often be found knitting to ease her stress and was often described as somewhat of a "lethal chef", with her daughter having done most of the cooking when at home during the days they didn't order takeout. With time, Holly is able to open her heart to love once again once she's made peace with herself and her past, allowing herself to fall in love with a sailor named Rupert Carlisle and wed him in two separate ceremonies, one of them being a traditional military wedding where are they are witnessed by loved ones and members of the US Navy, and the other being a small private ceremony in her backyard with just a few guests where her daughter Shelby serves as the maid of honor. She and Rupert decide to live a peaceful life in Henry's hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania together near his family's 11-acre Christmas tree farm. Holly also gives birth to their only biological child and Shelby's half-brother, Rupert Carlisle II, in her early 40s after Shelby's sophomore year in college. ISFJ 6w5 (unhealthy)