Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot)

Jill Farren Phelps

Harold Morgan

Bradley Ward

A.J. Quartermaine

Jason Morgan

Emily Bowen-Quartermaine (adoptive)

Skye Chandler-Quartermaine (adoptive)

Maya Ward (great)

Michael Quartermaine (great)

Danny Morgan (great)

Jake Morgan (great)

Lila Rae Alcazar (great, adoptive)

Gino Soleito

Luke Spencer

Mitch Williams

Anthony Zacchara

## Storylines

Tracy Angelica Quartermaine was born in Southampton, New York on April 6, 1949 as the youngest child of Edward and Lila Quartermaine. Tracy was introduced onscreen in 1978, as a divorcée and neglectful mother. Her backstory established that she had married young to Lord Lawrence "Larry" Ashton and had a son, Ned Ashton. When she divorced Larry Ashton, her son Ned spent a great deal of time with his grandparents or at boarding school while his mother focused on travel or her social life. She was more involved as a mother to Ned's much younger half-brother, Dillon. Tracy took Dillon with her to Europe to avoid being charged with a hit and run accident and to keep Dillon's father, Paul Hornsby, from taking custody. She succeeded in keeping Paul out of Dillon's life and raised the boy mainly in Europe. At one point, she lived in the SoHo district of New York City, where she was briefly married to mafioso Gino Soleito. She returned to Port Charles with a teenage Dillon and left him with her parents.

Tracy arrived in Port Charles in 1978 as the scheming daughter of Edward and Lila Quartermaine for Alan and Monica's wedding. A divorcee with a young son, Ned (off in boarding school), Tracy felt Monica was beneath them. The Quartermaines had resided in Port Charles for just over a year when she began to cause trouble for Alan and Monica. This was fueled by her discovery that Monica was having an affair with her first love, Rick Webber. Her mission was to determine that Monica's unborn child was indeed not a Quartermaine heir, but rather a Webber heir. This was a problem as both Monica and Rick were married to other people at the time, Monica to Alan, and Rick to Lesley Williams. In 1980, Edward, tried to test her loyalty by pretending to have a heart attack. Tracy failed to give her father his heart medication, he disowned her, and she was banished from the Quartermaines. Tracy had flirtations with Rick Webber and Gary Lansing, but his wife Gina prevented them from getting further involved. Tracy became involved with Mitch Williams, who was the victim of a mob hit that Luke Spencer had been ordered to perform but was prevented by Laura Webber from carrying out. Even though Edward distrusted Mitch, the couple eloped in November 1979 because of his ambitions to become Governor of New York State. During their marriage, Mitch was involved in an affair with waitress Susan Moore who would later have an affair with Tracy's brother, Alan. Tracy used her financial influence with Mitch to get him to end the affair and they relocated to Albany in June 1980.[17] However, the marriage quickly fell apart and Tracy divorced Mitch and went off to Europe.

Upon financial need and assistance from her mother Lila, Tracy returned to Port Charles in 1989, just a year after her son, Ned Ashton, returned. Upon her arrival, her first husband Lord Lawrence Ashton was introduced to the scene with his new wife. Tracy's major concern was the impending romance between her brother Alan and his friend Lucy Coe, who became an instant enemy of Tracy's. At the same time that Alan had an affair with Lucy, Alan's wife Monica had an affair with Tracy's son, Ned. Later that year, Tracy, and the rest of the Quartermaines faced tragedy when Edward Quartermaine's jet crashed on a desert island. Everyone grieved including Lila and Tracy, who were determined to find out what had happened to her father. Also in 1989, Tracy was accused of the murder of a man who was later turned out not to be dead. Scott Baldwin was her attorney and later became her romantic flame. At the same time that all of this was happening, both Alan and Tracy were fighting for ownership of ELQ, the family company. As a result of her actions, Alan blackmailed Tracy into resigning from the family company.

In the early 1990s, Tracy and Larry tried to figure out the secrets of her then sister-in-law, Lucy Coe. It was later revealed by Larry that Lucy was pregnant with the child of Scott Baldwin in lieu of Alan Quartermaine. This resulted in a divorce for Alan and Lucy and a quick reconciliation for Monica and Alan. Also, Tracy kicked Larry out and he left town. Later on, Tracy became entranced with Paul Hornsby, a young man who was infatuated with Jenny Eckert, a distant cousin of Luke and his the wife of Ned at that time. Tracy found Jenny to be a threat to her happiness with Paul, so she decided to dig up some information on her to keep her away from Paul. However, Paul found out what had been going on and decided to leave Tracy with their newborn son, Dillon Quartermaine. In a moment of rage, Tracy ran over Jenny with her car, and fled the scene of the accident. Later, Jenny remembered seeing Tracy behind the wheel and blackmailed her into getting a divorce from Paul and sharing custody of Dillon with Paul. Tracy fulfilled most of the terms, but in the end, was forced to vacate the Quartermaine house. Edward decided that she should take a long vacation until everything died down with the family company. Tracy was supposed to give Paul joint custody of Dillon, but because she did not like Jenny and what she did to Ned, she took Dillon with her to Europe.

Tracy returned to Port Charles in 1996, with hopes of taking over the company from her son, Ned. At the time, Ned was leading a double life, one as a son and financier at ELQ, and another as a rock star, known as "Eddie Maine". However, Tracy soon fell out of favor with the family again. It was during this brief visit that Tracy encountered Luke Spencer at Kelly's while Ned was performing. After Edward kicked her out once again, she blackmailed her old acquaintance Sydney Chase into selling her the building located at 212 Greene Street, in the SoHo section of New York City, and joined the ABC soap, *The City*. Living briefly with Dillon in the building's penthouse, she became involved with ailing mafioso boss, Gino Soleito and in December 1996, Gino gets her to agree to marriage. Tracy immediately clashes with Gino's daughter, Carla who believes she is after Gino's money. Gino and Tracy wedded in late February 1997 and on the wedding night she pretends to be sick to avoid consummating the marriage.[19] In early March, Tracy hired a prostitute to pretend to be her when Gino wants to consummate the marriage and he dies.[20] Tracy became—in her words—the crime family's new "godmother". Her new status served as the inspiration for a twisted joke on Thanksgiving Day 1997, when she sent a group of her henchmen to Port Charles to rob her family at gunpoint and pretend to threaten their lives. In the course of the "joke," the prepared food was ruined, continuing a long-running streak of ruined Quartermaine Thanksgiving dinners that resulted in the family ordering take-out pizza.

In 2003, Tracy returned to Port Charles. This time, she came with her son Dillon (now a teenager and using the surname Quartermaine). The first time he met the family, it was apparent to Dillon that they did not approve of him simply because he was Tracy's son. Tracy later blackmailed Skye for $5 Million when she told her about her true parentage. Tracy told Skye how Edward sold her on the Black Market right after she was born. Skye refused to give into her blackmail and ultimately revealed all to the Quartermaines and Tracy's part in it. The entire family got angry with Tracy, and Lila kicked Tracy out of the mansion. When Tracy left town, she left Dillon behind with Edward and Lila.

Tracy returned to Port Charles in 2004, after Dillon was arrested. Since no one else was willing to bail him out of jail, his friend and lover Sage Alcazar decided to call Tracy. By this time, the bond that Tracy and Dillon once shared began to tear and Dillon began to find out the exact kind of person that his mother really was. Also, in 2004, Tracy was devastated by the death of her elderly mother, Lila Quartermaine. Tracy lashed out on the entire family once again before having a heart-to-heart with big brother Alan. Tracy also delivered a kind and caring eulogy at her mother's funeral. At the same time, Tracy began scheming with the help of Jasper Jacks to take over control of E.L.Q. from Ned. This included proving that Ned was corrupt and that Edward was not of sound mind. Edward, with the help of Luke Spencer and Skye Chandler-Quartermaine, eluded Tracy and Alan's plots to "take care of Daddy".

Tracy fell victim to a cruel prank at the hand of her son, Dillon Quartermaine, and his girlfriend, Georgie Jones, for Luke. The plan was to get roughly $15 million he planted in her bank account to bail Helena Cassadine out of extradition. Since Tracy did not want to give him the money, Luke decided to pull the ultimate prank on her. He would have Dillon call Tracy from Las Vegas and tell her that he and Georgie eloped. Knowing this would get Tracy to Vegas, Luke used this as an opportunity to manipulate Tracy's weakness: alcohol. Once Tracy arrived in Vegas, it was too late - Dillon and Georgie were married. This drove Tracy into a drunken fit. Luke offered to buy her a few more drinks and they both proceeded to get more drunk. Since Tracy drank more than Luke did, she was completely incapacitated when Luke proposed marriage and she accepted. The following morning, when she woke up, Luke revealed everything to Tracy and the conditions to ending their marriage from hell. At first her marriage to Luke was platonic, and it continued because of finances, but she had to fight romantic feelings for Luke, who continued to be devoted to his former wife and great love, Laura Webber, who briefly came out of a catatonic state in late 2006. Tracy had to deal with her son Dillon's entanglement with his stepsister, Lulu Spencer. She advised Lulu against having an abortion when she became pregnant by Dillon, feeling Lulu would eventually regret her decision but was supportive when Lulu did abort the baby. Tracy told Luke that she was relieved for Dillon's sake that he would not become a father while he was still so young. Tracy began to be haunted by a recently deceased Alan, who served as her moral compass, as she doesn't have much of a conscience. As Tracy began to be supportive of Lulu, really acting as a mother to her when she most needed it, the ghost of Alan decided it was time for him to move on.

In 2007, Luke and Tracy's marriage started moving more away from platonic and closer to love. Dillon and Lulu find evidence to suggest that Laura did not kill Rick Webber, but Scott in fact did. Tracy and Dillon agreed to keep the evidence of the revelation from Luke Spencer, as it will destroy Luke that he caused Laura's physical breakdown. Tracy started to come to care about Lulu. Edward gets up to no good and sends Tracy to Shadybrook Sanitarium after she talks to Alan in front of Lainey Winters and also she found out that her only ally was Lulu. Tracy discovered that Lulu's friend, Logan Hayes, was the son of Luke's enemy, Scott Baldwin. She forbade Lulu to see him, but Lulu didn't listen to Tracy's advice. When Tracy decides to crush the family company, her father has no choice but to let Tracy out of the mental house and she is the only person who can get through to Lulu. With Tracy out of Shadybrook, she could now focus on ruining Lulu's relationship with Logan. The first step was to get Scott to admit that Logan is his son. After receiving iron-clad proof that the two were related, Scott tried to get back into Logan's good graces. As it failed and Tracy was determined to get Luke back home, she offered Logan money to play nice with his father and regain good spirits with Lulu after using her to make Maxie Jones look good. Hayes rejected the offer and suggested to Tracy that Lulu would go back to him when she realized how real their connection was but both were unaware that Lulu already agreed to Scott that she would give Logan a second chance. Upon realizing this, Tracy slapped Scott and resented him more for manipulating Lulu back into Logan's arms. This indicated that Tracy genuinely cared for Lulu's well-being. At the same time, Luke returned in October. Tracy revealed to Luke what happened with his daughter and Scott's son. Lulu, at the same time, got mixed up with Jason Morgan and Johnny Zacchara. Luke and Tracy teamed up to protect Lulu and her safety. Tracy has offered her to come back, but she declined. Luke had asked for Tracy's assistance in the matter, and she accepted, despite Ghost Alan warning her against interfering with Luke's events. Though Alan continued to haunt his sister, he still continued to serve as her conscience and sole guardian. A few days before Halloween 2007, the Spencers received an invitation from Nikolas Cassadine to attend a fancy dress *Black and White Ball* in Alan's honor. While both Tracy and Luke sneered at the thoughts of that function, Tracy reminded him that if they wanted to gain leverage on Scott and Logan, and keep an eye on Logan and Lulu, it would be a good idea to attend. At the function, she came late and did not actually appear at the beginning. It was, however implied that Tracy was expected to be late, by Luke's admission. When she finally arrived at Wyndemere Castle, she was isolated by the burgeoning storm and she stood on the deck by herself for 90 minutes before getting up to Wyndemere. Alfred, the Cassadine family butler, mistakenly scared Tracy, allowing her to lose her balance and fall down an entire flight of stairs. Luke kissed her, thankful that she was alive and did not fall victim to Anthony Zacchara. He, Scott, and Cooper Barrett rescued her from the collapse, while Tracy, Luke, and Scott barricaded themselves in the master bedroom, where Luke vowed to "nurse her back to health". When Tracy offered for Luke to go search for Zacchara, he told her that he did not want her to be his next victim.

In 2008, Tracy filed a malpractice suit for her out-of-town again husband, Luke. The lawsuit was filed against her sister-in-law Monica, which resulted in a hospital brawl in the General Hospital elevator. Tracy told Monica not to operate on Luke because of her emotional strain against the deaths of Alan and Emily; however, she did anyway, and froze on the operating table. Since Tracy filed the medical malpractice suit, she has been kicked out of the family's mansion with frozen access to the family money. When Luke did return, she explained to him that she still loved him, but was not going to continue to be married to him. Luke told her that he was not going to give up on their marriage so easily. Later on, she and Luke left town because Luke was being investigated by his connections with the Zacchara family, which invested in The *Haunted Star Casino*. The mob family left him to take the fall with the I.R.S. because he stole money from them. Afraid of what he would be up to, she agreed to leave with him. Tracy returned without Luke because he was not spending the money and enjoying their time the way that she wanted him to. At this time, Monica was in rehab after being indicted in court for hit and run. Tracy visited Monica and learned that she was doing fine and was ready to return to work in a few weeks, which pleased Tracy. Tracy visited Monica in rehab and asked for advice about how to save Lulu's life. Monica told Tracy that if she could turn back the clock, she would do everything to save all of her children, especially Jason. With that, she told Tracy that if she wanted to save Lulu's life, then she had to do everything in her power to drive a wedge between Lulu and Johnny. After that, she visited Johnny in his holding cell where she told him about her brush with the mafia. She explained to him that she was once a mob boss and she heard about how his father Anthony Zacchara murdered his wife: Johnny's mother. She told him that if he really cared about Lulu, he would let her go. In October 2008, when Lulu was in her darkest hour, Tracy had one of her 'men' to track down Luke. He turned up in Mexico, so Tracy headed there, but not before blackmailing Edward into getting the money laundering charges dropped. Once she was satisfied, she flew to Mexico and found Luke in a bar. They were both briefly put in jail, after a run-in with the local cops. In November, it was announced that Laura had awoken from her coma. There was a question of whether or not Luke would stay married to Tracy or go back to Laura, the love of his life. On November 20, Tracy filed for a divorce, but Luke tried to tell her he loved only her. With a new dawning beginning as Luke proclaimed his love for Tracy, being unconvinced and stubborn, Tracy shut Luke out lying to him and making him believed they were already divorced. However, the obvious love between the two lead to many ploys by Luke to win the new love of his life back. This happened on New Year's Eve when Luke planned a surprise party for Tracy. Tracy thought that it was a stupid gesture and a waste of her time and money. They played roulette, Tracy asked Luke what Laura's Birthday was. He replied December 21. Tracy then said that if the ball landed on 21 Luke will leave the country and give her a divorce but if it landed on 6 (Tracy's Birthday) she had to take him back. The ball landed on 6 and they bring in the new year with a passionate kiss.

In early 2009, Tracy then bailed Luke and his new friend Ethan Lovett out of jail. Tracy fixed the results of a DNA test to show that Luke was not Ethan's biological father, after Helena Cassadine pointed out how much alike the two were, but Tracy did not know the true outcome. It was later determined that Ethan was, in fact, Luke's son and Tracy's stepson. Tracy struggled with Luke's affections for Ethan's biological mother Holly Sutton who eventually left town again. Luke took off for the summer, and Tracy did not go after him. When he returned they began to get closer. Luke, Ethan and Lulu spent Thanksgiving with the Quartermaine's, and Tracy spent Christmas Eve with the Spencers. In 2010, Tracy had been there for Luke in the problems his children have been having. She has tried to protect Ethan from working with Johnny, and his problems with Kristina Davis. She bailed him out after he was arrested. When Tracy becomes suspicious of Elizabeth baby's paternity, Helena has her kidnapped. Luke comes to rescue and they are both held captive in Greece in Helena's dungeon. Tracy becomes deathly ill and Helena refuses to give her medical attention. Luke comes up with a story claiming that their marriage isn't really legal and Tracy is angry enough to regain her strength. Luke reveals that the story was fake and they are legally married, but she doesn't believe him. It remains unclear if the marriage is legitimate or not. Tracy is furious with Luke, and wants him out of her life. Luke tries several times to win her back, but when all else fails he concocts a scheme where he steals millions of her money and vanishes. He hopes that this will inspire her to retain interest and seek him out. At first she refuses to locate Luke, but later Tracy admits to Lucky that she can't help but miss her "husband." She hires Lucky to find Luke. Lucky pretends to accept her offer, but instead embarks on a secret mission for Interpol in Ireland. Also in 2010, her niece Maya Ward moves into the Quartermaine mansion, and at one point Tracy exposes her granddaughter Brook Lynn Ashton as a con artist. Upon the return of Skye Chandler in Port Charles in 2011, Skye fuels Anthony Zacchara with some background knowledge of Tracy Quartermaine, including facts that she inadvertently invested his dirty money into her family's company back during her marriage to Gino Soleito. With the newfound knowledge, Anthony begins blackmailing Tracy into a romance and eventually a marriage or else he will report her to the FCC and have them arrest her. With her back against a wall, Tracy is forced in an engagement to the mob boss, adding some embarrassment to the situation, Anthony enlists Maxie Jones' help in arranging the wedding. Claiming to first have a cold and then to be superstitious, Tracy gets Anthony to push back the wedding from Friday, January 13. Tracy later becomes jealous of Luke and Anna Devane's bond, and warns Anna about getting involved with Luke.

Tracy's April birthday is once again forgotten by her family. Luke, however, remembers and tracks down the offspring of Tracy's childhood horse Skittles. Luke's gift of Son of Skittles delights Tracy. Tracy enlists Luke's help to get rid of Anthony. Luke arranges for Anthony to be sent off to Ecuador, and Tracy tells Anthony to meet her at the Quartermaine boat house. When Tracy arrives at the boat house, she finds Anthony's dead body. Originally she thinks Luke shot Anthony, but Luke disproves this theory, and they realized someone has framed them. When the police arrive Tracy and Luke pretend that Anthony is alive and prop up his body to make him appear to be sleeping. Heather Webber, who is infatuated with Luke, sees through this and buries the body, to protect Luke. The police question Tracy in Anthony's disappearance, but they didn't arrest her because the body was never found. In August 2012, Tracy meets Joseph, a mysterious man, and the two instantly connect. During the pathogen scare, she remains unaware of Joseph's involvement with Jerry Jacks. Joe later gives Tracy his only vial of the antidote, which would allow her to live. When Sonny Corinthos exposes Joseph as Joe Scully, Jr., Sonny's old nemesis, Tracy is furious and breaks up with him. Even though she was still angry with him, Tracy removes a bullet from Joe and agrees to hide him. She later turns him in, when she finds out he lied to her once again.

Tracy's father Edward died on November 21, 2012, leaving Tracy devastated after realizing she is the only one left out of her family. On November 26, 2012, Diane Miller comes to read Edward's will, much to Tracy's dismay because of her involvement with Sonny, Jason, and A.J., Skye , Ned, Dillon, Monica, Brook Lynn, Lila Rae Alcazar, Jason, (due to his death, his wife Sam McCall inherited Jason's ELQ Stocks), Daniel Morgan, Michael Quartermaine, Maya Ward, and Alice Gunderson inherited ELQ stock holdings, and all of his personal values will be divided equally with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His money was donated to charity, leaving Tracy with nothing besides a jar of "Pickle-Lila Relish." In 2013, Tracy and her nephew A.J. feud over the rights to the relish and holdings in ELQ. Upset at being cut off, and unwilling to work with A. J. Tracy begins her own company which she names "T.A.Q.". She begins to believe that the reason the relish was left to her was to restore the glory of the Quartermaine name and empire. On March 8, she hires private eye Damian Spinelli to steal the relish recipe for her. She then uses it to create a new relish which she names "Pickle-Eddie". She takes on Nikolas as her business associate so she can use him for money to produce and promote the relish. On May 13, Nikolas schedules an appearance for the two on *The Chew*, but when he realizes that Elizabeth Webber is on AJ's side, he betrays Tracy and locks her in the hotel room, placing guards to keep her from appearing on what The Chew dubbed "The Clash of the Condiments". Later, someone arrives and frees Tracy in time to make it to the set where she discovers, to her horror, that the relish was tainted, making everyone who ate it ill. In June, another few wrinkles are thrown into Tracy's life, first when it is revealed that Franco is still alive. Franco worms his way into the family home, soon followed by his step-daughter Kiki Jerome and his former lover Ava Jerome, Kiki's mother. Once again, Tracy and AJ's war begins as they try to convince Kiki and then Franco himself to side with one or the other of them in the battle for ELQ. In the midst of the ELQ mess, Tracy learns that Luke is having health problems again but refuses to see a doctor to get the results of a test he had run. Tracy agrees to go with Luke and learns he is dying of poisoning.

in November 2013, Tracy rescues Luke from Cassadine island, and the two return to Port Charles, reunited. Luke claims Tracy is his soulmate. In 2014 finds Luke and Tracy together again, as a couple. in January, Luke is kidnapped from the Quartermaine boathouse, and held in Miscavige hospital. An impostor is released from Miscavige, posing as Luke Spencer, for the remainder of the year. In March, Tracy marries the impostor. Later on, it is revealed that this supposedly Luke double really is Luke. It is revealed that years before, Luke accidentally killed his mother after finding his father about to strike her. Unable to deal with this (and the fact that he also killed his father in retaliation for the beatings), Luke began to slowly snap as a result of the drugs given to him. He is put into a mental institution, and when he gets out, reunites with Tracy.

Laura shows up at the engagement party for Luke and Tracy and announces that her feelings for Luke are as strong as ever. After Luke and Laura talk privately, he announces that his engagement to Tracy is off. Secretly, Luke and Laura admit that they could never truly be together again, but because of a family crisis, they must pretend to be. It appears that Lucky has been kidnapped, and later, they learn from Holly that Ethan was kidnapped as well. This leads them to Canada where Luke is confronted by his presumably deceased enemy Frank Smith who was allegedly behind the kidnapping. Frank is killed and Luke prepares to return to Port Charles to try and reconcile with Tracy whom he still loves. Meanwhile, Dillon Quartermaine returns to Port Charles after having followed Luke and Laura, having discovered that Luke is still in love with Tracy and that his reconciliation with Laura was only to save their son. Tracy, in the meantime, prepares to go to L.A. to confront her granddaughter Brooke Lynn who gave Nikolas Cassadine her shares in ELQ. At the airport, she is stunned when she runs into her ex-husband, Paul Hornsby, who has returned to town to visit his son. In spite of her initial coldness to him over allegedly dropping Dillon out of his life, Tracy begins to warm up to him, especially after she finds out that Jenny left him for another man. She eventually enjoys some poolside drinks with Paul and they end up sleeping together, only to be walked in on by a guilty Luke who wants her back. She tells Luke he needs to move on and continue with life. Tracy then gets with Michael Quartermaine, Jason Quartermaine, (thought of as Jake Doe at the time), and Sam McCall in an attempt to get back ELQ from Nikolas. They later switch to trying to find Jake's true identity, and the plan hits a standstill until after Carly Corinthos discovers Jake is Jason and reveals it at his wedding to Elizabeth. Tracy then hires Hayden Barnes, (who discovered the truth about Jason after being an imposter of his wife and threatens to tell Jason, so Nikolas has her shot which is presumed to have erased her memory of it only to discover she was faking), as an insider to win back ELQ.

The Quartermain family begins to increase when a little boy found on Cassadine Island turns out to be Jason's son, Little Jake, having been taken in by Helena as part of her revenge against Luke who had believed that he was Jake's grandfather. After reuniting Jake with his mother, Elizabeth, and ultimately his real grandmother, Monica, Luke promptly leaves town to find himself, literally disappearing off the Port Charles docks where Laura had once vanished from. When Jake is revealed to be Jason, Tracy offers support to Monica who was still dealing with A.J.'s death. It turns out that Jason/Jake had been brainwashed by Helena Cassadine who dies on Cassadine Island before she has the chance to reveal more information. Helena's death leaves many unanswered questions but brings much relief to all of Port Charles, including her old cohort, Tracy. Monica and Tracy team together to plan a lavish hospital fundraiser. It is on the night of this ball that Tracy finds Paul in bed with Ava Jerome (who arranged for Tracy to come over to Paul's suite) and promptly kicks him out of her life. During this time, Tracy began to suffer from major pains in her head and after being examined, was informed that she might have brain cancer. This brought out tough love from Monica who responded to Tracy's barbs with some of her own, but it was apparent that this was tough love to get Tracy to fight rather than simply give up.