Remembering our Friend
Our dear friend and colleague, Catherine Saltwick, passed away on 30 May 2008 in Botswana, Africa where she was posted as a Peace Corps Volunteer. We, her fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, have created this blog to honor her and to allow all of her many friends, PCVs and her family to share their stories and their grief. To say we are shocked and saddened by the accident that took her from us is an understatement. To say she is missed and will never be forgotten is a truth.
Cathy was a seeker of truth, a seeker of adventure and a seeker of love and she found it all in Botswana. She served in the small village of Mookane and enjoyed her Peace Corps experience so much, she had just signed up for an extended third year of service, where she was to be posted at PSI in Gaborone. She spoke fluent Setswana, a feat few of her fellow PCVs accomplished. She said that the Peace Corps changed her for the better, but we all thought she was wonderful the first day we met her. Her motto was: “It’s all good,” and she said it often.
Cathy is respected by so many and we will miss her terribly. Her spirit lives on in each of us because she touched our lives with her inner and outer beauty, with her love of life, with her calm assurance of confidence and contentment and with her life of service and caring about others.
We are proud to call her a friend and we love her.
My Dear Friend Cathy
4 June 2008
My Dear Friend Cathy
My dear friend Cathy was a seeker. A seeker of truth, a seeker of adventure, a seeker of love and she found it all in Botswana. She would stay at my flat in Gaborone and we'd talk for hours and hours about the meaning of life, our service in Botswana and what the future would hold. She said Botswana and her Peace Corp service changed her for the better and I could see that, as I watched her evolve into a more self-confident woman who loved her life. Her favorite phrase became, "It's all good."
At our Swearing In Ceremony, on June 20, 2006, Cathy was standing in front of me and after the ceremony she turned around, flashed that big smile of hers, and exclaimed, "Sonya, we made it!" I hugged her and thought, "Oh Cathy, there is so much more to come before we've "made it." Little did I know.
In her second year Cathy became involved in the Lions Club as her Peace Corps side-project. This required more frequent trips from her village to Gaborone for their meetings. "Sonya's B & B" became her second home and I looked forward to her visits. We'd cook, drink wine and talk about what her future would hold. She'd ask: Should I travel to a Spanish speaking country for a year, where I can live and perfect my Spanish? Should I go to medical school and become an ophthalmologist? Am I too old? (I think she forgot who she was asking.) Should I do a third year in the Peace Corps? And then one night she shyly admitted, "Sonya, what I really want in this life is to find a man who loves me completely for myself and I'm afraid that will never happen. And I don't want birth children but I'd like to help raise step-children."
Well dear friend, you practiced The Secret better than any of us. You found that man who loves you completely for yourself, along with his beautiful children. Your dreams came true and after you fell in love you glowed. But more importantly, you exuded a calm contentment I had never seen in you before then. The kind of inner ease that only comes when you are absolutely sure your decisions are grounded in your truth. At our little dinner party on my last night in Botswana, your happiness was palpable and your deep connection to Hendrik and his children undeniable. And I left Botswana happy.
My dear friend Cathy, now "you made it" and you left earth happy! You are in that place where Elizabeth Kubler Ross says we graduate to after we have passed the tests we were sent to earth to learn. That place where our souls are free and we return to God. That place where you are never alone and where you are free to grow and sing and dance, especially dance! That place where you are surrounded by more love then we on earth can eve imagine.
My dear friend Cathy, you are so loved by so many and we will miss you terribly. Your spirit lives on in all who love you and I look forward to when our souls will meet again. Save a dance for me.
Sonya Wedin
Fellow Peace Corps Volunteer
Botswana '06 – '08
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