I don’t know how to break this to my mom, but I just heard that “As the World Turns” is going off the air next year. Mom has been watching “As the World Turns” for 48 years – which means she’s been keeping up with the likes of Nancy, Chris, Lisa and Bob longer than she’s been keeping up with me.

When I was little, she took a break everyday from housework to watch her stories. Or she watched while ironing shirts – shaking the iron at the TV, warning Betsy, “Don’t listen to him! He’s a snake in the grass!” She watches them still, but I long ago lost track of the leading snake.

I watched the stories daily until first grade; after that I could only see them during sick days, Christmas vacations and summers. But it wasn’t hard to catch up – Mom always filled in the gaps. Over the long years, there were fewer cases of total amnesia and more unplanned pregnancies, kidnappings and murders. I haven’t seen the soaps since college, but I’ve heard some of them have gotten as wild as alien abductions.

Mom was sad last year when “Guiding Light” went off the air, but “As the World Turns” was always her favorite. The Lisa character, played by Eileen Fulton for 50 years, is like an old family friend, albeit, one who’s been married nine times.

They say that “As the World Turns” might continue online, and I hope it does. Because then, finally, my mom will get herself a computer.