“General Hospital”’s Bobbie Spencer Gets a Divine — and Familiar — Escort After Her Death (Exclusive)

Executive producer Frank Valentini and actress Brighton Hertford tell PEOPLE the behind-the-scenes story of how the angelic return of B.J. came about

In a poignant twist return fans surely didn't see coming, General Hospital’s beloved Bobbie Spencer was escorted off to the “the other side” by a divine gift — her daughter B.J., who died 30 years ago.

Brighton Hertford — the actress who originally played B.J. when she was between 4 months and 7 years old — returned for the special appearance, which not only sent off the character of Bobbie in heart-tugging style, it also was a beautiful tribute to the cherished Jacklyn Zeman, who died of cancer at age 70 last May 9.

Viewers began to suspect that a surprise might be coming when Hertford was cast as the aptly named Associated Press journalist Angela Brighton, who attends Bobbie’s memorial service and tells Carly, Lucy, Felicia and Maxie of the late nurse’s work helping women who’d been trafficked. But the fact Angela was actually an angel — the spirit of B.J. herself — was a true twist.

Related: Jacklyn Zeman's 'General Hospital' Costars Hold Private Memorial for Late Friend

GH Executive Producer Frank Valentini tells PEOPLE that the story of B.J. coming back to interview and engage with Bobbie's loved ones came from writers Dan O'Connor and Chris Van Etten. "It's really their brainchild," he shares.

Valentini explains, “Jackie passed away while we were in the middle of the writers' strike, and I wanted to make sure that we saved Bobbie's memorial and everything dealing with Bobbie’s and how we were going to deal with the character parting the canvas."

He continues, "There was never any question in anyone's mind that we weren't going to recast, Bobbie because that just would've been impossible and I think would not have honored the show. So we decided that Bobbie needed to have had some kind of purpose to help sort of explain her exit.”

Related: General Hospital Says Goodbye to Beloved Bobbie Spencer — and Actress Jacklyn Zeman — During Memorial (Exclusive)

When GH’s 10-time Emmy-winning casting director reached out to Hertford, 37, to see if she’d be interested in returning for the two days, she jumped at the chance.

“A lot of things in the universe started to kind of line up in a funny way,” reaclls Hertford, who is currently in the tech business. “Mark said, ‘I don't know if you remember me.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Mark, you changed the trajectory of my life! Of course, I remember you!’ And we started chatting about this. I had learned of Jackie's passing previously and was really just heartbroken,” said Hertford, whose voice cracked as tears began to well up. “Sorry. I did not anticipate getting emotional on this interview, but it's starting to pop up a little bit.”

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Hertford had stepped away from television and film after leaving GH, as her family relocated to Utah. But as she grew older, she fell in love with theater and got a BSA in acting.

“It’s been a while since I've been on a professional set and I thought, you know, if anything would get me back into doing that, it would be something like this. I knew how much of an impact Jackie had on my life and, of course, countless others. But my first thought was, ‘Well, how the heck are they going to do that because there's a character on the show right now that still has my heart!’“ she laughed.

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B.J.'s death in 1994, resulting in her heart being donated to Maxie, is one of the truly classic soap storylines in history, with its mere mention of causing waterworks in fans.

“I didn't catch the gravity of it all as a child,” admits Hertford, who was around 7 years old at the time. What she does remember was how her mother told her that about the storyline, that B.J. was going to be badly hurt in a school bus crash, go into a coma and then die.

“I remember, she said, ‘They can get a body double for you because you're going to be laying there, in a coma for a long time.’ I had such an attachment to my I family, to the role. I mean, I guess it's kind of a wild thing to say as young as I was, but I was attached and, I just said, ‘No way. I want to do it. I want to take this to the end.’ Looking back on it, absolutely, it was a really difficult storyline. I’m in my late 30s now, and the thought of a child being in that situation is just super emotional.”

When she was a child, Hertford would refer to Zeman as her “other mom,” and she remembers fighting back tears when Bobbie and Tony (played by Brad Maule, who was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work in the storyline) said their goodbyes to B.J. “It was such a weird thing because I was like, ‘I know I'm not dying,’ but they're saying goodbye to me and, and it was actually a goodbye in a way.”

And Bobbie’s memorial was a beautiful way for the characters and fans to say goodbye to her — and for the cast to say goodbye to Jackie.

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“Coincidently, we did a big tribute to the character of Bobbie Spencer at the Nurse's Ball this year, which I thought was magnificent, and Jackie loved it,” Valentini says. “I mean, she had such a good time, and she was such a pleasure to work with and kept thanking me for the story. It gave the Nurses Ball meaning, it gave the hospital meaning. It worked on so many levels."

He continues, "I'm so happy that I did that. That was such a smart thing to do. Yeah. We got to honor Jackie while she was alive, and then when she passed, I wanted to make sure that the writers were the ones that, that it was in their very capable hands to not only break the news to the characters in Port Charles, but to also have her death count for something for the story.”

Although tears were flowing naturally during the taping of the memorial, in between takes, the cast and crew were lost in memories of Jackie. “We were all just talking about Jackie and tell stories,” Valentini shares. “Everybody just talked about Jackie. Talked about her daughters, talked about her real-life memorial, told stories about her. For Kristina Wagner and Lynn Herring, it was really especially hard,” he said, noting that they were very close friends with Zeman in real life.

“Jackie was a bright light,” he added. “It's one of those things that you want to pay tribute to someone who you very much loved, but in paying tribute, you're only reminded about how much you're gonna miss them. So it was very bittersweet.”

One final tribute at the end of Thursday’s episode — the renaming of Kelly’s diner as Bobbie’s — that was Valentini’s idea. And it came to him in a rather supernatural way.

“I know this is going to sound ethereal and crazy, but I kind of dreamt it,” he said. “I dreamt that we changed the name of it because, having known for several months that we needed to address this character's departure from the canvas and being concerned and wanting to do right by not only Jackie, but by Bobbie Spencer. ... I just feel like when I was thinking about it, I thought, ‘What's something that could be lasting?’ And that was the one that seemed to make a lot of sense.”

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General Hospital, including the show's tribute to Bobbie Spencer, can be streamed on Hulu.

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