100 years of living, sharing the faith

Friday, Jan. 29, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Catherine Goodwin celebrated her 100th birthday at St. Joseph Villa visiting with family and friends, and singing and dancing in her wheelchair. 

“It was a party to end all parties,” Goodwin said. “My children called everybody I knew and they knew to come.” 

For the party, Goodwin’s brother,  daughter, grandson and a family friend formed a band of acoustic guitars, a fiddle and vocals to play some of her favorite songs; she loves to sing and dance.

Goodwin moved to Utah from California when she was 75 to be close to her two daughters. She became a member of St. Vincent Parish so she could attend daily Mass. She also vowed she would never volunteer for anything again, but then she attended a tea at St. Joseph Villa and one of the Incarnate Word sisters there talked her into volunteering for sing-a-longs with the Villa residents. She began volunteering and decided  she wanted to live at the Villa some day so she could attend daily Mass and have a spiritual community.

The Villa’s senior apartments became Goodwin’s home in 2000 when she was 85. She continued to volunteer. She has made many friends there, most of whom she has outlived, but she continues to make new friends. Goodwin enjoys making people laugh, having conversations and she likes to talk about her faith, she said, adding that the only television she watches is the Catholic channel. She attends Mass when it is offered at the Villa and she prays the rosary every day. 

“Mary takes good care of me,” she said. “On my way to Mass, I pass by a picture of Pope Francis and I throw him a kiss and I pray the Our Father.”

“My mother’s faith is everything to her,” said Mary Goldring, one of Goodwin’s daughters. “For a woman of her generation, she is flexible in the expression of her faith. She went right along with the changes made after Vatican II. Her faith is in Jesus, Mary and in God, and in how the Trinity is expressed; it is not so much in the Church.”

While living in California, Goodwin became an Oblate of Saint Benedict and an Apostle of the Holy Spirit. For years she collected rosaries, religious statues, medals and Bibles to send to missions throughout the world. She smiled as she remembered saving different kinds of stamps for the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who collect canceled postage stamps to help support their ministries with the poor.

Goodwin was born in Pennsylvania, but grew up in Munson, Ohio, where she was a musician playing the French horn and where she met William Goodwin; they married in 1938. William was in the military and when he was discharged, they moved to California, where their three children, John Edward, Caroline and Mary, were born. William died in 1976.

All of Goodwin’s children attended Catholic school, and she passed on her love of music. 

“Both my brother and I are musicians and my son Andrew is a professional musician,” said Goldring. “She taught us all as children how to sing harmony.” 

Goodwin just shakes her head in disbelief that she has lived to be 100; she has always been very outgoing, energetic, spiritual, devoutly Catholic and has given her life over to God every day, she said. 

“It’s hard to grasp that my mom is 100 and to think about all the history that she has lived,” said Goldring. “She didn’t live to be 100 because she has had a good life; it hasn’t been easy. She has lived to be 100 because she has her faith, no regrets and she chooses to have a positive attitude.”