My life with Cathy began when we were about 4 or 5 years old.  We grew up on Cheshire Street together.  She was my very first friend. When we were little we played dolls together. I liked her dolls better than mine so on those days we played dolls she would let me borrow hers.  At Kennelly School some of the teachers got us mixed up because we were always together.  They would look at me and call me Cathy and they would look at her and call her Emily.

 When we were 12 years old we started buying records (45s).  We loved rock and roll and dancing. We also had our transister radios which we carried with us.  We danced with the neighborhood kids in our basement at our house. On weekend nights in the summer we played hide and go seek with all the other neighborhood kids including Sandra and Peter Wochesin, Johnny Orzech, George Viberts, Arlene LaPenta (another very close friend of Cathy's),  and possibly my cousins Wade, Fern and Judy Eisnor.  I remember going to Cathy's house and hearing her play the accordion.  She was very good.  I played the piano which I thought was so much easier.  I looked forward to her birthdays because her Mom (and possibly Pat,) decorated the table with fun party supplies and little candy baskets.  

Some nights  we did our homework together at her house at her kitchen table while listening to the radio.  Afterwards, her Father would walk me home and walk their Dog Lucky at the same time.  When we went to high school, Cathy went to the newly built South Catholic High and I went to Bulkeley High. She was there for me when my Father died when we were freshman. It was then I met another close friend of hers, Ann Mulready.  The 3 of us were together a lot and remained very close. ( We lost contact for a while when I got married and started having kids and Ann and Cathy were still in college.) We kept in touch as much as we could over the years when all of our lives were so busy.  When Bill and I went off to Bible School in Oklahoma in 1997, Cathy and Charlie came to visit Charlie's Mom who lived in Ponca City, a town nearby. They were able to come have dinner with us at our apartment.

About 5 years ago, after my husband and I got a time share in the Berkshires, I would call Cathy & Charlie and Ann and Peter and we would meet at a restaurant and catch up on all our lives.  I will miss Cathy so much because she was such a wonderful and special friend whom I will always treasure in my heart.  God has prepared a special place for Cathy and she is no longer in pain but is healed and whole.  I look forward to our great reunion in heaven someday.