Ruth Lesse

From Walkypedia!

Ruth-Anne Lesse

First Appearance: Roomies! October 2, 1998

YOB: 1975

YOD: 1999

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 145lbs

Relatives: Dick Lesse (father), Howard Lesse (brother)

Status: Deceased

Ruth Lesse was a bookishly intelligent kid who, at 15, thought she knew all she needed to know. She did what her parents told her, excelled at school, and held others in silent contempt for not getting with the program. She had it all figured out.

But something happened. By the time she was in college, she was a lonely, embittered soul who had given up on the world. Although not proud of it, she lived in a perpetual cycle of drinking and self-loathing. Was this her destiny? Was it too late to make a change?

History

Ruth and her brother Howard were largely neglected by their perpetually arguing parents, so she escaped into books. Babysitting Billie, the daughter of her rich neighbors[1], she grew happier as she saw a financial path out of her backward town, though she still felt terribly alone. To this end, she met Ryan, an older boy who understood and completed her. Yet she wasn't happy when ultimately she submitted sexually to him, strangely finding their encounter wrong and confusing. [2] This encounter took her attention off babysitting Billie and her friend, who got into an enigmatic accident. Her faith in her responsibleness shaken, she ran the wounded boy to her father, who was a doctor. Unfortunately, this caused her to discover that her father was having an ongoing affair with Billie's mother. [3] Additionally, she would discover later that Ryan had merely used her for sex, and that he had immediately moved on to other targets.

Her faith in herself shattered, her father revealed as a sham of a role model, and her vulnerability painfully exposed, she retreated into herself. Her parents quickly and violently divorced, and she soon found herself, despite everything, the sole stable foundation her brother Howard had in the absence of their parents' attentions.

Somehow, even though her morose, self-destructive tendencies continued through college - eventually infecting her friend Billie - she graduated with her bachelor's and moved on to do graduate work. This is when her brother Howard followed her to school, and where she met Danny.

Curious about his moral attitude to life, she invited him to a party and tried to get to know him better. However, he objected to her friendship with drunken jerks. She admitted to him that, whilst not proud of it, she no longer cared about consequences, which was a big deal for Danny. However, she then began worrying about Danny as her depression seemingly rubbed off onto him. When he began drinking, she realized she had destroyed a valid moral person.

When Danny went driving already drunk, she resolved to make amends. Beginning a turning point, she went after him in order to stop him. Trying to get him to pull over, she noticed a truck crossing the lane barrier up ahead and heading for Danny. Uttering the now infamous phrase, "Act with integrity, no regrets!", she rammed Danny's car out of the way, and was hit by the truck head-on. She died instantly from a snapped neck.

Her death was a massive turning point for both Danny and Billie. Billie gave up drinking in an attempt to be a better person, and she ended up dating Danny to help her stick to her new life. Danny himself became a more mature person in the end, who realized that morals are nothing without experience.

Ruth was then seen again when Walky was in purgatory. She was surprised to see Walky was then older than her, a side effect of dying at different times of their respective lives.

Trivia

• Ruth's name is another example of a Bad Pun. See Dina, Faz.
• Ruth definitely smooched and possibly had sexy sexies with Billie in college, despite babysitting her when she was younger. Wow-chicka-WOW.
• In the September 2, 2007 Shortpacked! blog, Willis commented that the character was created with the knowledge she would die.