Lena Spencer

Laura Wright as Lena Spencer

**Elena "Lena" Spencer** is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera *General Hospital*. She was the mother of legendary characters: the late Pat, Luke, and Bobbie Spencer.
She was portrayed by Laura Wright in a flashback episode on April 1, 2015 and also on July 23, 2015, when she appeared as a ghost to Luke.

## Background

Lena Spencer is the mother of Pat, Luke and Bobbie Spencer. Lena was a housewife in Port Charles who was abused by her husband Tim, but she always found a way to cover up her black eyes and bruises.  Her part in the Spencer family was only through the stories Luke and Bobbie told from what they remembered about her. They claimed that Lena died after getting severely beaten by Tim on April 1, 1963, and that Tim left the family the same night she died.

52 years later, in 2015, Lena's son, Luke, had a mental breakdown. Luke wreaked havoc on his hometown of Port Charles and even took his daughter, Lulu, then fiancée, Tracy, and sisters hostage at gunpoint. After reasoning with him, Luke came out of his manic state and rushed to his old home on Elm Street where the abuse occurred. At the home, Luke remembered for the first time everything that occurred on the night Lena died. Meanwhile, Patricia explained to her family, which she had not seen in decades, what truly happened that night.

15 year old Luke had just came home from a baseball game and older sister Patricia had just had downstairs wearing pants, which was not socially accepted at the time. Luke's younger sister Bobbie hid behind the curtains as an April Fool's joke. Lena was frustrated that they needed to get dinner ready for their father, Tim, who hadn't come home from working on the docks yet. The atmosphere changed immediately when Tim finally came home. Pat had changed into a dress before he got there and Luke and Bobbie set the table with Pat.

At dinner, Tim was verbally abusing his family as usual. Tim asked Luke how his baseball game was and Tim was angry that Luke lost and made Luke practice swinging the bat in the living room. After berating Luke's sissy batting, Pat immediately confronted her father, verbally standing up to him and was slapped hard in the face by her drunkard father. Lena immediately went to Pat's defense by trying to reason with Tim and saying that she didn't mean it. This erupted into an argument about her taking the kid's side over Tim's and that Lena needed to stand up to her husband. Luke and Pat made Tim back off when he threatened to give Lena what he gave Pat in the face. Bobbie was at this point in her room for her protection, while Luke accidently hit his mother in the head with the bat while trying to protect her. Pat defied her father and took his car to GH. Lena was reluctant and wanted to go home, but Dr. Steve Hardy (who was well-aquainted with Lena Eckert and her abusive husband, treating her injuries before) and Dr. Phil Brewer treated her when she passed out in the waiting area.

Pat waited for half an hour and was heartbroken when Dr. Hardy declared Lena dead. Dr. Hardy told Dr. Brewer to contact Lena's brother Fred Eckert, who also lived in Port Charles in place of the husband. Fred and his son, Bill (the spitting image of her son, Luke) got to the hospital and Bill was there to comfort his cousin Pat after she said goodbye to her mother. Although the Eckerts lived in the same town as the Spencer's, Patricia had never seen or got to know the Eckerts because of her father's disapproval. Patricia knew that Luke and Bobbie were not safe at home alone, so Bill offered to help. When they got to the house, Luke was found shattered and distant on his knees with the bat beside him. Tim was found dead next to him. Pat and Bill kept the incident a secret to protect Luke and Tim's corpse was buried behind the wall in the basement. To protect herself, Pat signed the house over to Bill.

Bobbie's son called Patricia while she was talking to them and revealed that Luke had broken into their old house. Patricia, Bobbie, and Tracy raced to the house where they found Luke. Patricia filled in the blanks to Luke and he realized that he killed both of his parents and had mentally blocked it out. Luke finally understood what his cousin, Bill, meant by his dying words of "forgive yourself for what you did to your mother."

On July 23, Lena appears in a hallucination to Luke when he was about to shoot himself along with Patricia and Tim and she and Pat persuade him not end his life and live happily in peace. Luke asks her to forgive him and Lena tells her son that there is nothing to forgive and they embrace.

## Health and Vitals

* Physically abused along with her children, by her husband
* Accidentally hit in the head with a baseball bat by her son, Luke Spencer and later died of swelling on the brain [Apr 1, 1963; revealed Apr 1, 2015]

## References

1. ↑ Stated by Steve Hardy on April 1, 2015.
2. ↑ http://www.tvinsider.com/article/1170/general-hospital-anthony-geary-luke-killer-secret/