Abi invites Dot to Christmas in Exeter but Dot insists she has plans of her own. The launderette closes on Christmas Eve, but everyone is too busy to visit her. She finds a Christmas mixtape recorded by her deceased friend Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison), and takes in a stray cat, which she eventually names Dave. She spends Christmas Day alone, but when Patrick realises she has not gone to Exeter, he invites her to The Queen Victoria pub where everyone is celebrating Christmas, and her neighbours present her with the gift of a washing machine. When Ronnie, the wife of Dot's former stepson, Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), and her sister Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons), mother of one of Jack's children, both die, Dot tells the children that they are in heaven, helping them to understand after Jack struggles to find an appropriate way to tell them. When Jack is unable to take Dot to the garden centre, she decides to drive herself with her great-grandson, Matthew Mitchell Cotton, but drives through a no entry sign into oncoming traffic and ends up in the verge. Dot is surprised when Charlie returns but he is only back for his son and she is upset when he leaves again with Matthew. Dot's step-granddaughter Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald) lives with her for a while but moves out with Dot's blessing.