The year was 1976 Dr. Marlena Evans was a doctor on staff at Bayview Sanitarium. She was one of Mickey Horton's doctors who had to clear all of his visitors. Don Craig had come to the sanitarium to get Mickey's signature on some papers when he met the feisty Dr. Evans. Sparks flew but it took a while for love to grow.

Eventually Don and Marlena fell in love. It seemed that the couple might be heading to the altar when Marlena's twin sister arrived in town with other ideas in July of 1977. Samantha was an out of work actress who was jealous of her sister's life. In September of 77 she decided that she would take over Marlena's life. She had Marlena committed to Bayview Sanitarium. Don eventually figured out that it was Sam impersonating Marlena when he caught her writing with her left hand. Marlena is right handed. Marlena and Don broke up for a short time after this because she was so angry that he didn't figure it out sooner that it was Sam not her. But in December of that year they reconciled and decided to get married.

In 1978 a reporter named Arlene Harris ran a story in the newspaper about Don/Marlena/Sam story to try and ruin Don's public image. This article is seen by one of Don's old girlfriends, Loraine Temple. Loraine came to Salem to introduce Don to the daughter he never knew he had Donna. Loraine left Salem but Donna stayed in town to get to know her father. During this year Marlena and Don tried to get married but the wedding was stopped because Donna was on top of the roof of the Salem Hotel threatening to jump. Marlena rushed out to try and talk Donna down. Don fell from the roof when tried to reach out to pull Donna in. He had many health problems and spent many months in the hospital.

On March 5, 1979 Don and Marlena finally tie the knot. For their honeymoon they toured the California coastline. While in LA they visited Sam who was working on a television soap opera called "Together Again."

During 1979 Marlena found out that she was pregnant. She and Don were thrilled. Also during that year Sam visited from time to time and she on one occasion took Donna back to LA with her. Donna loved the glitz and the glamour and decided that she wanted to follow in her Aunt Sam's footsteps. But eventually things fell apart from Sam. Her kidneys started to fail and she moved back to Salem for treatment. She would undergo kidney dialysis until a suitable donor could be found. Trying to start her acting career Donna had some pictures taken of her but the pictures were altered into nude pictures of Donna. The pictures were given to Don and he was told unless he stopped his campaign against porn the pictures would be given to the press.
The year 1980 was a busy one for the Craig family. Sam had received her kidney transplant and Marlena gave birth to a baby boy named Donald Jeramiah Craig Jr. Soon after the baby's birth Sam left town to try and get her acting career on track. Donna also left town to live with grandma Craig because it was just too much for her after the pictures were published. Marlena began trying to balance work and motherhood and Don took a job with Kellam Chandler. This is when Don and Marlena's marriage started to fall apart. Don didn't like the fact that Marlena was working instead of taking care of DJ. Marlena was upset that that Don took the job with Kellam without discussing it with her first. The two were constantly fighting and they were slowly starting to drift apart. Don had a brief affair with Liz during this time. The final blow to their marriage was the death of DJ to SIDS only three months after he was born. Don blamed Marlena for the baby's death because she didn't take care of herself when she was pregnant.


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