Kathryn Goodwin says her life is ?All for the glory of God'

Intermountain Catholic

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Kathryn Goodwin is a resident in Assisted Living at CHRISTUS Saint Joseph Villa. When she first moved to the Villa she moved into the Senior Apartments. As a result of health problems, she has also been a resident in Quinney Transitional Care, and has also been helped with rehabilitation and physical therapy.IC photo by Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Kathryn Goodwin, 93, is a resident at CHRISTUS Saint Joseph Villa. She moved to the Villa to live in the Senior Apartments when she was 85 from her mobile home.

Kathryn is very outgoing, energetic, spiritual, devoutly Catholic, and gives her life over to God every day. Each morning when she awakes, she asks God, "What do you want me to do for you today?"

As a resident in Assisted Living at the Villa, one would think Kathryn could not do very much. But Kathryn assists others by talking to them, sometimes about her relationship with God, or by making people laugh by telling them jokes. She goes to Mass and prays the rosary daily, which she said fills her spiritual tank to capacity.

Kathryn became an Oblate of Saint Benedict and an Apostle of the Holy Spirit, while living in California. For years she has been collecting rosaries, small statues, religious items, medals, Bibles, and sending them to missions throughout the world. She now collects rare, commemorative, and foreign stamps to help support communities in missions. She still collects Bibles, and other religious items for missions around the world as well as for the Salt Lake Diocesan Detention Ministry.

While in California, Kathryn joined the Ladies Guild and started her own Food for the Poor by taking her mother’s wire shopping basket, with her hand-made sign on yellow paper in red ink that read "Jesus said feed my sheep."

"They called me a bag lady, and I told them just call me a Jesus beggar," said Kathryn. "I collected food and money and packaged it. Then the parish secretary called and said a mother with two small children were in need so we gave it to them. The program grew so big that I was given a plaque from the bishop for starting the food program among other things."

When I came Utah, I vowed I would never get into volunteering again. I moved into a mobile home and then Incarnate Word Sister Carmella invited me to a tea and talked me into doing the Sing-a-long at the Villa. Then in 2000, I moved into the Senior Apartments and became a resident and a volunteer.

"As a resident, I used to go to Albertsons where the produce man would give me bananas and I would give them away," said Kathryn. "I also used to make small fist-size banana bread for people."

Kathryn was married to her husband in 1938, and they were married for 38 years. He died in California Oct. 16, 1976. He lived in pain for 35 years after falling and breaking his neck, and was unable to work. They had three children, and now she has grandchildren. Her grandson is a musician in a band. He sent her a CD of his band of which she is proud.

"I had three young ones in five years," said Kathryn. "I have two daughters and one son. My mother came to live with us in California. She lived with us for 25 years until she died in her sleep.

"After my children were grown and left our home, I took in a 17-year old boy from Mexico. He came to learn English and went to Palm Springs High School. He had lost his mother when he was 11, so I became his mother. He still calls me Mom.

"He is now 46 and has three children," said Kathryn. "After graduating from high school, he went back to Mexico City where he met someone who put him through flight school in Seattle. He then went back to Mexico City and now flies a jet plane.

"I was born in Pennsylvania in 1916, before the world began," said Kathryn. "I had one older brother who was killed in 1935, when two men robbed my father’s butcher shop on Holy Thursday. My father gave them $35, which was hard earned in those days. He told my brother to go downstairs, but when he heard the gun shots he came upstairs to help my father. They shot my father in the stomach, but he survived. They shot my brother and he died on Holy Saturday. Ever since then during holy week, I stay alone and cry.

"I learned centering prayer, which I do every day," said Kathryn. "I lay down on my bed and I ask Jesus to clear my mind. Sometimes I feel a warmth that starts at my toes and moves up my body. It revitalizes me and that is what keeps me going."