George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley) moved viewers to tears in Coronation Street this evening as he presented a gift to a grieving Christina Boyd (Amy Robbins).
It was revealed weeks ago that Christina is the biological mother of Rachel, who was allegedly murdered by her partner Richie (Nathan Sussex), who is also Tim Metcalfe’s (Joe Duttine) cousin. As a result of Rachel and Richie’s daughter Lucy (Anya Dewin) living with Tim and Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor), Rachel’s funeral and the organisation of her ashes have been handled through Shuttleworth’s Funeral Parlour.
Christina discovers Rachel’s death certificate
When Christina decided to give George and Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) a hand with some admin, she came across Rachel’s death certificate. It then hit her that the woman was her daughter.
Christina revealed to George that she gave birth to a baby girl after an affair with her boss. She spent three months trying to look after little Rachel, but eventually handed the baby over to her boss and his wife, who couldn’t have their own children.
George finds Christina with Rachel’s ashes
In tonight’s episode, Sally arrived at the funeral parlour to collect Rachel’s ashes, but Todd was forced to quickly create a cover story for Sal after he realised the urn was actually missing. George sensed that Christina had something to do with Rachel’s ashes disappearing, and later found her clutching the urn while at the precinct.
Christina was absolutely devastated, wondering how she would move forward. George did his best to help Christina and told her that they would find their own way to honour Rachel, because it wouldn’t be fair on Lucy for her to keep the ashes.
A tiny leather photo book
That afternoon, George presented Christina with a gift. It was a tiny leather photo book with a picture of Rachel on one side, and an image of Christina’s second daughter Daisy (Charlotte Jordan) on the other.
‘Baby steps’, George said. Christina had been unable to see a way forward before this moment, but sensed that finding acceptance with George by her side might just be a possibility.
