Susan Barlow

Susan Ida Barlow (previously Baldwin) was the daughter of Ken and Valerie Barlow, twin sister of Peter, wife of Mike Baldwin and mother of Adam Barlow. (Ida, after her Grandmother and Ken's mother Ida Barlow.)

Susan and Peter were born in 1965. They were raised by Ken and Val in Weatherfield until Val's death in 1971, after which Ken sent the twins to live with Val's parents Alfred and Edith Tatlock in Glasgow, with the intention that they would return to Weatherfield when he had married again. Ultimately, Susan and Peter only paid fleeting visits to Weatherfield before they turned sixteen.

In 1981, Mike Baldwin helped Susan get a job in London. She eventually moved to Newcastle, but returned to Weatherfield in 1985 with the intention of staying. Susan started a relationship with Mike, despite him being more than twenty years older than her and Ken disapproving because of his own hatred of Mike. They got married after a short romance, but in 1987 they separated when Mike pressured Susan into having a baby, even though she wanted to put her career first. When she told Mike she had had an abortion, he ended the marriage and they got divorced soon after.

Susan returned to Scotland and gave birth to Adam, and kept his existence secret from Mike and her family until 2001. When Mike found out about Adam and demanded custody, Susan left Glasgow with the intention of going where Mike couldn't find her, but she was killed in a car crash on the journey. Adam survived.

1965-1985: Early Years
Susan and Peter had relatively uneventful childhoods for their first few years, although in 1965, they nearly died in a house fire, because a piece of coal fell out of the fireplace and burst into flames. Ken was out at the Rovers Return Inn getting cigarettes and Valerie was furious. When Valerie was tragically killed in 1971 after being electrocuted, Ken couldn't cope so sent the Susan and Peter to live with their grandparents up in Scotland. Although Ken often considered taking the twins back, he always found a reason to keep his distance, so Susan and Peter essentially grew up without a father.

1986-1988: Marriage to Mike Baldwin
In spite of Ken not being there for her when Susan was a child, the adult Susan tried to build a bond with Ken. By 1985, Susan had moved back to England. Following an argument with her mother, Deirdre, Tracy Barlow ran away from home planning to see Susan. When Susan returned to Weatherfield with Tracy, she became interested in her father's business, the Weatherfield Recorder, and began helping him out. Susan liked Weatherfield and the Recorder and told Ken and Deirdre she wanted to stay. They suggested she go home and think about whether such a big change was something she really wanted. Before long she was back in Weatherfield, moving in with Ken, Deirdre, and Tracy. Going out with Ken's arch enemy, Mike Baldwin, created a rift between Ken and Susan. Ken was extremely unhappy when he learned Mike had asked Susan to marry him and insisted she wasn't to see him. At that point Susan moved in with Mike. When she asked Ken to walk her down the asile he refused to even attend the wedding. but Peter told him he should go, since he had never been there for the children. Ken ran to the wedding and gave Susan away.

In 1987 Susan ended up pregnant to Mike. However, she didn't want to have the baby as she wasn't in love with Mike any more, so went to have her pregnancy terminated and later claimed she miscarried, but Mike saw right through her and knew she'd had an abortion. She later left Weatherfield once again. However, she never had an abortion and gave birth to son Adam on 3rd May 1988, but never told her father Ken.

1988-2001: Death
Many years later in 2001, Ken had discoved about Susan's secret after his son Peter let it slip during an argument that Susan never aborted Mike's baby. Ken later went to see her, but she begged Ken not to tell anyone, which Ken promised. Ken later let it slip to Deirdre, who in turn told her ex-lover Dev Alahan, who informed Mike. Mike was angry and demanded he wanted to see Adam. Susan decided to leave Weatherfield once again, but when trying to escape with Adam, she ended up in a car crash and was killed. Adam however managed to survive the crash. Susan was later buried next to her mother Valerie.