I very recently found out about Cathy’s death doing a Google search involving ACHS, and a link to her obit popped up. I then found this site, and saw the comments. I wondered would something said by someone who knew her in grade school in Margate be of any interest and perhaps comfort to her family and friends?
I came to know Cathy in a singular way. Her family bought the house on Nassau from the parents of my first best friend, Clay Rolley. I learned to swim in the pool. Clay’s parents were great friends of my parents, so I have many early memories of that house. They moved away, and then Cathy appeared at the Union Avenue school. When I told her she moved into the house my best friend had lived in, this seemed less significant to her than to me.
But I soon saw how Cathy was a remarkable person. Boys and girls aged 6 or so did not interact much, and Cathy’s being very pretty and very self assured made her seem somewhat intimidating. But she was always very nice to everyone. She was also very smart, but in a quiet sort of way, never overly competitive. Cathy also seemed more mature than everyone else. She stood out, stood above, the rest of us, at least I thought so. She was a remarkable and memorable person to have as a classmate. We were not close friends, but I think she knew I admired her.
We were classmates all through Union Avenue, and went to the Tighe school together. My family moved away from Margate in 1968, and I never saw Cathy after that. But coming to this site and reading about her life, she was in later life true to that remarkable person she was in grade school. She was always like that, and so all the good things people said about her and her accomplishments do not surprise me at all.
That time may seem very long ago, but life goes by quickly, and in Cathy’s case far too quickly.