Endnotes: Laughing with Cathy

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Donald D. Kautz, Associate Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: My father Harry died recently at age 89. When he filled out the hospice forms and answered the question “How do you want to be remembered?” he wrote, “That I was a Christian and had a good sense of humor.” When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, my family was very active in our local church near Denver, Colorado. My father was a constant volunteer—except on the stewardship committee. That was not because he didn’t believe in giving—he always tithed. The problem was that he made it clear he expected everyone to tithe, and so he made other people uncomfortable when he approached them about their yearly pledge. Dad felt the same way about premarital sex. He didn’t have sex until he married my mother when he was 38, and he expected everyone else to do the same. So I was shocked when Mom and Dad invited Cathy and her family to come stay at our cabin in the Colorado mountains. Cathy was one of the popular girls at school—and a cheerleader. That’s why I didn’t know her very well; I was never in the popular crowd. But at age 17, Cathy was pregnant ... and unmarried. My parents must have figured Cathy and her family needed to get away.

Additional Information

Publication
Journal of Gerontological Nursing
Language: English
Date: 2010
Keywords
Nursing, Personal Stories

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