LARA PELLEGRINELLI: I've lived in Fair Lawn, New Jersey; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Richmond, Virginia. But I've always gone home to Oakdale.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "AS THE WORLD TURNS")

U: And now for the next 30 minutes, "As the World Turns."

PELLEGRINELLI: My mom started visiting there as a sophomore in high school. And when I was born, she started taking me with her.

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PELLEGRINELLI: Even when I got tired of the people in Oakdale, I knew them - and it was easy to imagine that they knew me.

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PELLEGRINELLI: In my mind, I could always find a friend like Lisa, the proprietor of the Lakeview Hotel, to commiserate at the bar in the lobby.

M: (as Lisa): Lara, my darling. What is wrong? Nobody drinks at the bar in my hotel alone.

PELLEGRINELLI: Oh, Lisa. I'd always dreamed that I'd be married here, here at the Lakeview. How am I ever going to move on with my life?

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M: (as Lisa) Oh, I think you have to get back out there, honey. It doesn't matter if you're young or old. You find love again, or it finds you. I've been divorced so many times and widowed - oh, at least four. But still, I don't think romance is finished with me. And I know you. You're resilient, too, or my name isn't Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Hughes Shea Coleman almost Haley McColl Mitchell Grimaldi Chadwick.

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PELLEGRINELLI: But she's also the actress Eileen Fulton.

M: Did I get the part?

PELLEGRINELLI: I might be losing Lisa, but it's comforting to know that Eileen Fulton, the dedicated professional behind her all these years, will go on.

M: I feel like I've been let loose. Free to fly, to do. Sorry, that's how I feel.

PELLEGRINELLI: For NPR News, I'm Lara Pellegrinelli in Oakdale.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.