Topic summary
Joan Trotter
Extracted from the Wikipedia article List of Only Fools and Horses characters.
Joan Trotter
Joan Mavis "Joanie" Trotter is Del and Rodney's late beloved mother, and wife of Reg. Though she is never seen in the series, she is often mentioned by Del, especially in his attempts to emotionally blackmail Rodney, who had few memories of her. Del loved his mother deeply, and still mourns her death. Over the series, it became clear to Rodney and the viewers, but not always to Del, that Joan had had a series of affairs with numerous men during her loveless marriage to Del's selfish, workshy father Reg. One such affair was with local "gentleman thief" Freddie Robdal and resulted in the birth of Rodney. She died on 12 March 1964 of an unknown illness while Rodney was still very young.