Oh Patrick, what will I do without you? Siobhan Duck is mourning the loss of TV character Patrick Reid from Offspring. I AM grieving. As I go about the minutiae of my day, I find my thoughts turning to him. To the child who will never know him. And the woman he left behind. And then there's the funeral to get through next week. I am not sure my poor heart can cope. Even though I knew this heartbreaking moment was coming (thanks to the steady stream of "guess who's about to die" promotion from Channel 10) the death of Offspring's Patrick Reid has hit me hard. Yes, that's right I'm talking about a TV character. A completely fictional - albeit ridiculously handsome - character played by actor Matthew Le Nevez. I can already sense the cynics out there rolling their eyes in disgust at my words. Sure, no one actually died. And there are far bigger tragedies in the real world every day. But the tears shed by me and countless other women and men (yes, men, I know you were there quietly weeping when Nina buried her head in her beloved's thick thatch of chest hair as he lay hooked up to a ventilator) were real. Very real. It was powerful and well-written TV performed by some of our most acclaimed actors. For that alone it was compelling stuff. But for fans who've spent hours watching, gossiping about and analysing the love between broody Patrick and scatty Nina (Asher Keddie), it was a heartbreaking end to their romance. To those who don't watch the show, I understand how silly I must sound. After all, I consider myself to be a (mostly) rational and tough woman with a relatively black sense of humour, yet hours after watching Dr Patrick slip away from a head injury sustained in a car accident, I'm still thinking about it. And I am not the only one, if Twitter and Facebook are anything to go by. So why is it, in this age of cynicism that even tough broads like me get so swept away by a TV show? I've just had a baby so I could blame it on hormones and sleep deprivation. But it's not the first time this has happened to me. I still get misty-eyed when I think of A Country Practice's Molly dying peacefully as she watched her family playing with a kite in a nearby paddock. Then there was the loss of Packed to the Rafters' Mel, who dropped off her perch texting messages of love to her new husband, Ben, while driving. And don't even get me started on the tragic, out-of-the-blue demise of little Lou in Foxtel's Love My Way. As her mother, Frankie, Claudia Karvan's pain over the inexplicable death of her little girl was palpable. And still is. There's a reason TV deaths have a powerful effect. The characters become part of our lives. We invest in them and identify with their relationships. So when someone like Dr Patrick falls foul of a car on the way to his much-longed-for baby shower, it feels like a friend has been bowled over. For others, Patrick's death carries even greater poignancy. One man on Twitter commended Le Nevez for his portrayal of Patrick. The man was the father of a stillborn baby and was grateful to the show for highlighting the issue from a man's perspective. Likewise, he was saddened that the character would never experience the joy of holding a living child in his arms, as he had done. If you ever needed proof that viewers feel real connections with TV characters, it was in that tweet. But it's not just about connection - there's a fair amount of emotional manipulation involved in TV too. Let's face it, writers know how to tug at the old heart strings. I've watched enough TV to sense that tragedy is coming. I didn't need to see Ten's ads to feel the end was nigh for Patrick. It's an unwritten law in TV land that as soon as a character finds true happiness, their head is on the chopping block. And given how smiley gloomy old Patrick has been of late, it was inevitable something had to give - and it seems that thing was a clot in his brain. Sob. Seeing my growing distress, my husband urged me to turn it off. Why do you do it to yourself? You know what's going to happen," he sensibly warned. But it was too late for that. I am in, hook line and sinker. And when poor Nina welcomes her first child next week without the love of her life by her side, I'll be there weeping on the couch. And I'm sure I'll do it all again when the next TV character karks it. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment. I realise now that watching a TV character die is a terrible reminder that tragedy can strike any one of us at any time. So in the interest of self-preservation I have banned anyone close to me from dying. Watching Dr Patrick go has been painful enough. Siobhan Duck is a Herald Sun journalist