When a turn of events transpires that causes Patricia to discover the identity of Scott's aunt, she is forced to confront Fiona about the blackmail she believes must be the motive behind her sudden appearance in the Hamilton's family life. While Fiona is angrily berating Patricia about family life and her maternal values she lets slip that it was herself who raised the boy twin until he was five. When the reality of what Fiona has just said starts to sink in, Patricia realises tht Scott Edwards must be her son.

Patricia is now forced to tell her family about what really happened 20 years ago. When Patricia confesses to her children and husband that she was not an abandoned mother 20 years ago like she led them to believe and actually had twins, a son she had run out on, they are less than accepting. Anglea decides to never forgive her mother and heads off with John to Melbourne to meet the father she never knew about and Gordon cant forgive his wife for lying to him for so many years and shuts her out emotionally, telling her he wants a divorce. After an argument where Gordon tells her she didn't make a very good job of being his wife so she is not likely to succeed at getting the new riding school renervations under way Patricia decides to go away to Woombai for some time alone and to prove to herself and everyone else that she is capable of being more than Mrs Gordon Hamilton and starts work on the development for her son Wayne while he recovers from a car accident.

When Patricia arrives at Woombai David Palmer is there doing some labour work for Fiona Thompson (who is a partner in the new Woombai Riding School development) while there is a transport strike in Melbourne. Patricia goes out of her way to be hostile toward David fearing her feelings toward him and after a few days of hostile treatment David realises that it was a mistake to think that they could be friends after so many years. When the two meet up at the swimming hole on the property by coincedence Patricia announces to David that the unofficial word is the transport strike is over and he will be able to go home to his wife and family. When David walks past her commenting that it is welcome relief, Patricia realises that this is her last opportunity to let David know her true feelings for him. When she calls him back he comes to kiss her and they embark on a passionate affair.

When Angela calls her step father from Melbourne Gordon tells her about the divorce descision that he and her mother have agreed to and when Angela tells Beryl about her parents split and Patricia staying at Woombai near David, Beryl is immediately concerned that her husband might be tempted to carry out his feelings for the woman he never got over, and catches the first plane to where David is. Patricia and David are contentedly happy caught up in their feelings for one and other and when Beryl arrives unexpectadly the two are thrown into a panic. Beryl of course knows her husband is having an affair as soon as she sees the guilt on his face and decides to confront Patricia about it. After trying to deny the affair, Patricia realises that there is little use in trying to fool David's wife and admits to their affair. Beryl rushes out and tells Patricia that she has no hope of fighting her for David while he is with her at Woombai but he will be back home in a few weeks and she will not have a ahold on him then. When Patricia asks Beryl about what if David decides to stay for good Beryl says she would never want to see him again. Patricia immediately puts in plans to encourage david to stay with her, telling him how happy they could be and discretely sowing the seeds of doubt about a future with Beryl. When David tells Patricia he has decided to stay with her she confesses that Beryl indeed does know about their affair and this causes David to think deeply about his wife who he does love. Walking up to the steps of the verandah ready to move in with his lover, David changes his mind at the last minute and decides to catch the last flight back to his wife and the security of his life in Melbourne. Patricia is devastated over David leaving her and When Gordon arrives and finds her crying he puts two and two together and realises what has been going on with his wife and David Palmer ( with more than a little help from the nosy houskeeper Rosie Andrews). He kicks her off the property and tells her she is not welcome to stay on in their Sydney house either. Patricia leaves Woombai immediately and when she gets home is talked into staying on in the Dural house by Wayne and her best friend and neighbour, Charlie Bartlett, until the divorce details are finalised. When Anglea flies home from Melbourne a little homesick and missing Gordon, John makes her take a closer look at her mother and see that she is not the ogre that anglea believes her to be. He encourages Angela to make an effort to get along with her mother or else he doesn't want to know about her childish behaviour. When Patricia learns that Angela is missing a family life and that is the main drawcard for her wanting to live in Melbourne with David and Beryl, she decides that she needs to reconcile with Gordon and hopefully keep her children with her in Sydney.

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See Pictures and Hear Sounds from the Show -

Rowena As Patricia -

ROWENA, WHY I'M QUITTING SONS AND DAUGHTERS:

Interview July, 1984

" I've been thinking about it for a long time, but I think I knew underneath all the time that I couldn't do another year of it. That would be lying to myself and lying to everybody else, I just knew it in my heart. My head I had to convince, but in my heart I knew;.and it' s hard because I' ve enjoyed it. It's been an intense part of my life for almost three years. I love all those people. It's going to be really hard to wrench myself from it. I'm tired and I just feel as if the character has died inside me. If I feel like that, it's going to come across. The audience is going to see it, so it's crazy to keep pushing it. I've paid the price for it in lost of ways. I don't have a personal life...it' s just non-existent. On the other hand, it's given me the opening to things like the World Vision and the Anti-nuclear organisation that perhaps never would have happened had this role not come along, so it was meant to be. When this part happened, I knew intuitively that it was right for me and that it was going to be good. I had an intense feeling about it. That feeling is just as intense now that it would be wrong, almost morally wrong, to go on trying to play a character that I don't have the energy and commitment to do anymore. I thought about leaving last year but I thought there was more to do and more to give. For practical reasons I wanted to stay. It's hard to move out of that environment. It is like breaking away from your family...I'm not going to think about that last day of filming, I can't bear to think about it. I sort of think that maybe the best way is to slide out of the studio without anybody seeing me and just going home. Even thinking about it gives me a lump in my throat.

"The strains are enormous in their way, if you can imagine playing all those nervous breakdowns, all the crying and the ranting and raving. I don't just switch on and switch it off. It takes me a long time to prepare myself for that and then it takes me a long time to get over doing it. I've noticed the personal effect that it has had on me, and I cannot risk it anymore. I cannot risk it for my physical and mental well-being. There have been enormous compensations, I guess. On one level there has been the exposure and the publicity. On another level there's been the challenge of playing a character in a continuous way. I've discovered all sorts of things about myself, some of them good, some of them bad. It' s been revealing and I am really honestly grateful for it. It's been an extraordinary thing. I feel that program was meant to be. It came at the right time and it was right for me. I've got a lot more confidence personally and professionally and most of it is due to all the things that have happened to me playing that role. There have been times when it's been difficult for me to keep my feet on the ground, that's been a lesson. It's often only after the event that you realise what's happened to you - that you've slipped over that border, yet again, between who you are an d all the things that you used to make that character come alive. I've read stories about actors that has happened to and I' ve always said: 'Oh come on, that's taking it a little far'. But if you live with that character five days a week, and people approach you as if you are that character, that sort of subconscious desire to react to that is very strong. It's like being two people all the time. You've got to try and be aware that you don' t do that; you mustn' t do that. Whatever the cost, you' ve got to be you and you've got to keep this other crazy thing under control.

"It's always a consideration (the prospect of being remembered as Pat the Rat for a long time to come), but it' s one that I can't really afford to worry about. If it happens, it happens. If I'd left last year it would have happened then, so that's just something I' m going to have to live with. I think I' ll get offers of other work; I' m sure I will. If I don't, then I' ll just have to live with that. If producers and directors think that this is the only thing I can do, well, then I feel that is very limited thinking. Who knows if the public and producers and casting people will allow her to die? I think they probably will. I think that once she's not seen on the screen anymore, once she 's not part of their life, they' ll forget very quickly; people do. I may have to change the way I look; it' s a possibility. It's not one that I would enjoy but if I felt that to play the role it was necessary, then I would do it.

"Certainly this is the most successful character I have played. I' m very grateful for it. So many things have come from this job on a personal and professional level. It's been a catalyst for me. But things have their own life; they don't go on forever. It's time for me to go. I don't know that I would be happy playing a decorative role after playing Patricia for three years. I don't think I could do it. I think I'd rather not work. I'd rather carry on with the World Vision commitment and the nuclear commitments rather than go back to playing pasty, cardboardy, two-dimensional women that have nothing to offer. Let's face it I'm almost 37 and I'm hardly nearly decorative anymore! I ain't a stunner and I don't have a great body. I'm now an actress; I've reached that area where things that I w ant to do, the roles that I want to play, are going to have to be roles that I can bring my experience to. What a waste if there isn' t something that I can channel all that into.

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