Behind the Headlines

I’m a Funky Winkerbean comic strip fan. It’s a bit hard to keep up with the plot here in Monroe, with only the Sunday strip in The Monroe Evening News. It’s even more confusing these days with a jump ahead in the timeline of the story that started a few months ago — readers are still getting used to what favorite characters are doing.

So here’s the backstory for Aug. 10.

The woman you see in the first box is Lisa Moore. She died last fall of cancer.

Before she died, she and her husband Les sat down with a camcorder so Lisa could record messages to be shown in the future to their young daughter.

Today’s comic strip shows one of those video messages. There was a strip awhile back in which we saw Lisa do this recording session.

Way back in the story line, Lisa got pregnant in high school. Les was one of her best friends, and stood by her during the ordeal. That baby was given up for adoption. Les and Lisa started dating after a high school reunion, got married, and had one daughter, Summer.

Summer is now watching this video as a teenager, hearing her mom explain what happened during her high school years.

– Paula Wethington