I Want To
Live Forever
Soap Opera Weekly News
NBC News and Gossip - The inside stuff
September 23, 1997
With his frontburner storyline, leisure time is at a premium for Tom Eplin (Jake). But he's been spending almost all of those few spare hours renovating his 67-year-old home. Not alone, of course. ''My father brought a group of Spanish artisans in to do the tile work., and every morning at 5 or 6 a.m., I'd walk downstairs to the sound of Spanish folk songs,'' he says. ''They're finished but I miss them. In fact, I still wake up every morning at five looking for the Spanish food. I gained 12 lbs. while they were here, so now I'm on a crazy diet.
''Then I had a young kid move into the guest house - so I've gone from not being able to sleep in the morning to this kid keeping me up at night with his music.''
Eplin jokes that, at this rate, the renovation might never be done - although that might not be a bad thing. ''In San Jose, there's a place called the Winchester Mystery House,'' he says. ''The owner was the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, and in the late 1800's, she became very involved with the fortune tellers. One told her that she'd live as long as she kept working on her new house. So she started stairways to walls and doors that lead to nowhere. My house is just like that. I believe that as long as I continue working on it, I'll live forever.'' Indeed, Eplin may achieve eternal life. ''It's like the Golden Gate Bridge. I started at one end and when I get to the other, I'll have to start all over again.''