AB FAB

In a celebratory year for Y&R, Melissa Ordway is marking her own major milestones.

- Devin Owens

It's surreal," sums up Melissa Ordway about two significant milestones she recently celebrated: turning 40 years old on March 31 and officially playing Y&R's Abby for a full decade. "I still feel like the girl who just stepped on set and was so nervous. I still have those days where I can't believe I'm here and get to do this as a job. And then at the same time, it feels like I've been here forever [chuckles]. I feel like Melissa and Abby are kind of morphing into the same person."

Ten years ago, Ordway had wrapped the 80-episode nighttime sudser HOLLYWOOD HEIGHTS when she got a call from that show's executive producer, Jill Farren Phelps, who had just assumed the same post at Y&R and needed to find another Abby to take the place of the departing Emme Rylan (who became GH's Lulu). "I had just gotten married and I was about to turn 30," she recalls. "I was so excited because I always wanted to be on a soap, so it was a dream come true. My mom had told me for years, 'You need to do a soap opera, and I was like, 'Yeah, who do I call? How do I get to do one?" HOLLYWOOD HEIGHTS was a nice introduction but I wanted to be on one of the big soaps. So when Jill offered the role to me, I was over the moon about it. I had just done six episodes of 90210, and I was more thrilled about Y&R."

Before officially starting, Ordway attended an on-set cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate the sudser's then-40th anniversary. "The press was there and I remember one person said to me, *You have really big shoes to fill, good luck," she sighs. "I felt like there was zero confidence that I could do the job. I'm normally a confident person, but I actually thought, 'Maybe I can't do this."