Happy Birthday, Catherine!

You may have been a "middle child" (yes, I read your comment to Leo on FB) but we never thought about you like that; for us you were just our Lolliwinks.   

You were such an individual. You ran your own course and did your own thing, rarely seeming to care if your timing was on key.  Somehow, you just figured it out.   As a young one, you may not have always been confident about your choices, but confidence is what you wanted to present to the world around you.   Yes, you were stubborn.  And yes, you would walk away if your questions or statements weren't immediately acknowledged (and it was like pulling teeth to get you to come back) but that stubbornness was never defiance.  It was more a resistance to not getting what you wanted, on the spot.  

You had poise. And so much color about you; a gaiety that was all yours, so particular to you.  
Did you know this?  I did.
And there was a good bravado that developed in you, that probably emerged as you learned to fight your way to being heard amongst so much hustle and bustle in the home.  

Immediately after Martha came along, you assumed the role of little Mama.  You mothered her and Lisette and Aloise and Brent so well.  You were their advocate, even in later years. You rarely missed an opportunity to bring them to me when you discerned that my sights might be somewhere else.  You were an observer and you observed well.  When you spoke, Catheine, I listened.   And that stubbornness I referred to earlier?  It played a big part in you not letting the right things go.  It was replaced with a special grounding that has come to define you in my eyes. That resistance?  As you grew and matured and became a real Mama, it softened and melted away. 

                                                       Dad's Lolliwinks...almost grown. 

I'm pretty sure the girls delighted more in spending time with you than they did with me during our many visits to Mimi's House.

You had a knack for knowing how to safeguard and look after them while still being one of them.  You enveloped a fun and colorful quality that spilled all around you.   

Most of these photos are from Granny's batch.  (I should have posted this one on Cy's birthday post; look at that stance!)   But it's on your's because I love these group pictures. 

                                                Happy Birthday, Sassy Lolliwinks.