Farah Fath, gigi, oltl, jpi
Credit: George De Sota/JPI

We’re not crying, you’re crying.

Tomorrow, January 13, marks a milestone anniversary for one of the saddest days in daytime history — after more than 43 years on the air, One Life to Live aired its final episode on ABC. We have a special tribute lined up for tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check it out, but we aren’t the only ones feeling the wistful call of nostalgia right now.

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One Life to Live alums like Farah Fath (Gigi) and the show’s former headwriter — and Days of Our Lives‘ current headwriter — Ron Carlivati, have been getting all the feels on this year’s anniversary. Carlivati tweeted a bittersweet photo of him on The View with Hillary B. Smith (Nora) and Andrea Evans (Tina).

“Getting ready to say goodbye to One Life to Live ten years ago,” he wrote.

And then there was the beautiful clip of Viki saying goodbye to One Life to Live‘s soap within a soap, Fraternity Row, and voicing exactly what we were all feeling. All Carlivati could muster to tweet with that one was an emoji with a single tear.

The fans weren’t the only ones moved by the tribute — though we suppose we can count Gigi’s portrayer as a fan, both of her lost soap and of its biggest star: Erika Slezak.

“I miss One Life to Live,” the actress, going by her married name, Galfond, tweeted, “That was fun.”

She then went on to share a heartfelt tribute to Slezak saying that the clip Carlivati shared had her reflecting on how she “learned and grew so much there, with Erika in particular as my greatest influencer and role model. ”

“Erika’s professionalism and kindness to everyone on-set was bar none,” the actress continued, saying that the daytime legend pushed her to be better just by being there. But over the years, as happens despite the best of intentions, they lost touch. Until Galfond had her son, three years ago.

“After eight or so years of no contact,” she explained, “[Slezak] got ahold of my email in early 2019 to congratulate me on having my son and to see how I was doing! I was so surprised!”

Farah Fath, John Paul Lavoisier, Erika Slezak, Brian Kerwin, Kim Zimmer, Austin Williams"One Life to Live" Set ABC StudiosNew York 10/12/10©George De Sota/jpistudios.com310-657-9661Episode # 10818air date 11/24/10

As if that wasn’t touching enough, Viki’s portrayer “also complimented me, saying how ‘special’ it was to work with me. It may sound strange, but that one unexpected e-mail gave me closure to my daytime career and finally, after many years, let me feel proud of myself!”

While we’re heartbroken that it took so long for the woman who played not just Llanview’s Gigi, but Salem’s Mimi (as recent as 2019!) to feel pride in her work, we couldn’t be happier to hear Slezak was the one to help her realize the truth.

The actress concluded that, “If I made Erika happy and she enjoyed working with me, then my time on OLTL was a massive success, and I’m forever grateful for the experience.”

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Before we go, we just want to assure Galfond that yes, her time as Gigi was a massive success, and we too are grateful for the experience.

And before you go, remember to come back to Soaps tomorrow, January 13, for our One Life to Live tribute (or click here — the story’s live). In the meantime, hopefully we can help tide over your nostalgia with a slew of photos from the much-missed soap’s 43 years.