Early Years
Vanessa gave birth to Dinah at the age of seventeen in 1970 and felt she was incapable of being a good mother to her newborn at the time. With no one to turn to for help, she gave Dinah up for adoption and was reassured that her child would be adopted by a great family who would love and care for her. Dinah would have to endure a turbulent childhood and when she was reunited with her biological parents in her teenage years, the hurt and resentment she felt towards Ross and Vanessa for giving her up as a baby made it hard to forgive them. Vanessa especially received the brunt of Dinah's wrath when she learnt her mother had placed her for adoption without Ross even knowing about her existence.
After her initial adoptive parents (John and Melissa Carter) were killed in a car accident, her adoptive uncle, the late Gordon Matthews(Melissa's brother) placed her at the Little Angels Foundling Home in Springfield. In time, she would be placed with a foster family the Morgans who also took in another girl, Adele, whom Dinah became very close to. She ran away from the Morgans and found a new foster family, the Kowalskis, that worked at a carnival, but 1986, Dinah was tired of the carnival life and left for Springfield to find her long lost foster sister, Adele.
Eventually, Adele (now known as Dorie Smith) and Dinah would be reunited thanks to Phillip Spaulding's help. Dorie would go on to be adopted by India von Halkein and Dinah moved into the von Halkein residence as well.
Though still resentful of him, she accepted Ross faster than Vanessa and moved in with her father eventually. Although she could hardly be civil to her mother. On the romantic front, Dinah became involved with Cameron Stewart who would break her heart when he had an affair with Lacey Bauer(Johnny's younger sister) on the side. Hurt, she turned to Alan-Michael Spaulding. Her relationship with her mother was further strained when Vanessa discovered her teenage daughter was socialising with alcoholics at wild parties thanks to her new boyfriend's influence.
Whilst on a motorcycle tour with Alan-Michael one night, her boyfriend accidentally collided with Frank Cooper's car. Frank was on his way to the hospital so his pregnant kid sister, Harley Cooper, could give birth. With no way to get to Cedars on time, Dinah delivered Harley's newborn whom the latter would name Daisy. Dinah and Harley became fast friends and the former would be there for emotional support when Harley gave Daisy up for adoption.
Meanwhile, Ross and Vanessa had reunited and although Dinah was happy about that, her parents ended up separating again. Later, when Vanessa was about to leave for Venezuela, Dinah and Ross said their goodbyes and mother and daughter finally reunited. In 1988, Dinah suspected George and his criminal partner, Nicky Sutton of smuggling drugs in cars through Frank's garage. Although she tried to tell Cam, he refused to believe her and pushed her away. As for Cam, he made up with his father but, one day, he witnessed George with Nicky at Spaulding Enterprises and finally realized that George hadn't changed as he claimed. One day, when Dinah was alone in the Stewart house with George, she tried to get George to leave Cam alone. George getting angry with Dinah and nearly acting on his sexual obsession with the under aged Dinah came after her and nearly raped her. Fortunately Cam was visiting Ross, and Cam realized that Dinah was at his house with his father and not at Ross's as Dinah had led to believe. Cam and Ross raced over to the Stewart house and got George to stop before Dinah was raped. Springfield P.D. Lt. Larry Wyatt tried to get Cam and Dinah to see that it wasn't wise for them to set up George, but both of the teens refused to listen, but Lt. Wyatt got Cam and Dinah to agree to let him be nearby when George was arrested. On the day Rusty was arresting Nicky, George ran from Nicky and back home with the last drug buy that George was going to make from the man. Cam and Dinah on a tip from Rose McClaren came home with Lt. Wyatt waiting right outside and when George came home he first started abusing both Cam and Dinah until the bag of coke he bought from Nicky came falling out of his pocket onto the kitchen floor. Lt. Wyatt came in and arrested George right on the spot. Meanwhile, Alan-Michael had enough of Dinah being involved with Cam's personal problems and he and Dinah broke up. So Dinah and Cam were free and got involved again. Not long after, Dinah and Cam were surprised to learn of Alan-Michael and Harley's engagement. In February 1989 Dinah departed Springfield to go to college in Paris and Cameron followed her.
Read more about this topic: Dinah Marler
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