Blanche's final scenes aired on 11 December 2009, just days after Maggie Jones' death. In the subsequent episodes, it was revealed that Blanche had unexpectedly been offered a free holiday in Portugal by her friend May and would be spending Christmas abroad. When May hurts her leg Blanche stays on to nurse her. On 3 May 2010 Blanche was due to return; when Peter goes to collect her at the airport he discovers Blanche has died earlier that day, devastating Deirdre. May (June Whitfield) later arrives and explains that the real reason Blanche had stayed in Portugal for so long is that she had fallen in love and become engaged to a man named Arnold. Deirdre is surprised Blanche never told her - and even more surprised to hear Blanche regularly spoke of how proud she was of her daughter "Dee-Dee".