Remembering Cathy Hanson

Things happen in life that is great. Things happen which can be quite tragic. This past week, it was the latter. Our community lost one of our own. Cathy Hanson passed away yesterday after suffering a massive heart attack.

To say that this hit many of us hard would be an understatement. It was a shock that is quite numbing and really drives home several important things.

I’ve known Cathy and the Hanson family for the majority of my life. Growing up I was friends with her son Mark and we’ve been good friends for most of our lives. We would spend time at each other’s houses and so would get to know each other. My mother and Cathy did many things together as they both served on various student/parent organizations while we went through school, and they were close.

Cathy’s heart attack happened last Saturday night, and Mother told me that she saw Cathy at the fair earlier that day and they talked, chatted and laughed like there wasn’t a care in the world. So you can imagine how this has affected all of us. I suppose the one thing I take from it is that you need to live life as full and complete as you possibly can. I believe that Cathy did this.

In the entire time I’ve known her, she was always out in the world doing things. Whether it was as a mother, who raised four children, or as a wife, who worked around the farm along with her husband Glenn, or working in the community as a 4-H Advisor, a church elder, in the Grange, or through the school, Cathy was involved, and was often in charge because it was the only way things would get done. When Cathy would say that something was going to get done, you could take that to the bank.

I’ve been here before, with family and friends over the past several years, and it is a rough road each and every time. I try to take one thing though from the experience, and here, I believe it is to go out, live life and be involved.

Life is not worth living if you wait around for it to come to you. Cathy taught me that, and it’s a lesson that I’m going to try to take to heart.