As Guiding Light begins to wind down to it's close, Elvera Roussel, now a producer and director, suddenly found herself reliving her Springfield days as Hope Bauer Spaulding. Thanks to a recent guest appearance on BuzzWorthy Radio, a top internet radio show, Roussel was thrilled to be speaking once again to former cast mates and sharing the greatness of the GL she knew with a new generation of fans. Giving and full of grace, Roussel now takes the time to share her life and what she has been doing since her role as Hope.

When Roussel departed GL in 1983, she headed for the west coast. She was encouraged to try her hand at directing and was fortunate to have sitcom creator James Burrows take her under his wing. She observed the makings of many shows, including "Frasier," and after she felt confident enough, Roussel was ready to tackle directing on her own. But fate would not have it so. "I had an accident. I got tripped and fell, and got a terrible back injury," she shares, "I had to come back to New York and have extensive back surgery. If I hadn't... I was starting to go paralyzed but thank God, I'm fine now. While I was back here (in New York) my stepfather was diagnosed with cancer, so I stayed here, went to film school at New York University and made a short film while he was still in the early stages." Soon after, Roussel's father and mother would also fall ill with cancer. "Please don't smoke," Roussel suddenly states emphatically, "Smoking was the direct cause of my parents' deaths... Slowly they passed away but it took many years out of my life. But this is what you do, you take care of your family. But I completely fell out of the business, nobody knew I existed. They thought I disappeared."

But as Roussel soon learned, when one door closes, another door can open. "A few years ago, after everybody was gone, I had put in an application for the New York Foundation for the Arts to get sponsorship to make a documentary...I had put this application in and was waiting to hear from them, and sadly my mother passed away," Roussel says, "And literally two months to the day, when I was very, very sad, I got a phone call and the woman said, 'This is New York Foundation for the Arts. We think that you have a very important project and we very much want to sponsor it and accept you into the sponsorship.' And I said to her, 'You have no idea what this means to me,' and I think, in a way, it kind of saved my life. I had no direction at that point. I had to walk away from my acting career, didn't know if anyone even knew me. That whole thing about a window's open, there's a path. So the last five years, I have been working on this film."

The film has necessitated trips all over the world for the footage that Roussel wants, including Europe and Laos. "This has become a very, very important part of my life," she states, "I believe tremendously in this documentary. It's about history, and it's personal, and it's about children caught in a war not their own. Their experiences, how they react to it, and what they become years later, how it affects their lives and who they are. I'm also fielding offers and talking to people about going back into acting, which is exciting for me. I'm going to be curious what my first acting job will be. It's a different world! But to have this project to focus on has really helped me to come back into the world. It's really been a life-saver."

But the actress also sadly notes, "It's really sad that all three of my parents were already dead when the Foundation accepted me. I filmed other people's parents, but I didn't film my parents for this. And as I'm filming this, I'm thinking, 'Why didn't I film my parents, why didn't I make them sit down?' My regret - and I want to say this to everybody - film your family. Sit them down, talk to them about their lives. I'm so angry. Here I am, an actress/filmmaker who didn't do that with her own family! It's insane. Record your family history and your life story so that it can be passed down from generation to generation. It's very important. And take those pictures. I look at all the pictures I took of everybody and they're just my treasures."

As for Guiding Light and it's impending end, Roussel observes, "It's a really wonderful cast. Everyone on that show is just fantastic. It's really a good company of actors, everybody's interesting and brings a lot to the performances. It's just very sad to see the show go, but they (the actors) will all get work." Thinking back to playing Hope now is almost surreal for Roussel. "It's so strange, it's like another person was doing that. I can't tell you - this is the adventure of life. I think all the different experiences, the different waves of time you go through.... I keep telling people to live each day, take a moment. Life is not about the endgame or your obituary. To know that you have lived at the end of your life. Live each day. Know that if you know you are going that you have lived. You've taken advantage of everything, you've said the words that you wanted to say to the people you love. The words 'I love you' are so important."

These days, Roussel is still keeping busy with the documentary. While she doesn't want to reveal too much, the subject matter is an important and often overlooked topic. "So far, it's me, camera and the person I'm filming, all over the world. It's very strange making a documentary. It's completely different from anything I've ever done." Roussel expects the film to be complete in the next year or so and is putting together a trailer to raise money for the post-production. Very shortly, she will also be reunited with many of her former GL cast mates at a private party being held by Krista Tesreau (Mindy), as well as co-hosting BuzzWorthy Radio's Emmy broadcast alongside Patrika Darbo (ex-Nancy, Days of Our Lives) and show owner Na'Vell Lee.

"That was a golden age for Guiding Light," she says of her time as Hope, "Given support, and given trust, a performer can do just about anything. You can go pretty much anywhere in your heart and in your mind and create something. It's the most generous training ground that you could be at. When I left, I felt confident that there was nothing I couldn't do."

Photos courtesy of CBS and Black Tie Magazine.