Catherine Loftus

The youngest daughter of immigrant parents from Ireland, the first eight years of Catherine’s life were during the Great Depression. Growing up during this time greatly affected Aunt Catherine and she developed a thirst for knowledge and an inner motivation to succeed and provide for herself. She attended St. Jean the Baptiste high school and later put herself through Hunter College. She landed a wonderful job at Texaco where she would stay for her entire career despite having to move to Dallas,TX which she grew to love , but initially hated. “Everything is in slow motion here! “ Her work took her to many parts of the globe including Indonesia and Iran, and she collected beautiful artifacts from her travels.

She was a voracious reader with a love of biographies and murder mysteries. When you went to visit Aunt Catherine, you would see several stacks of books next to her chair. She didn’t believe in buying books or newspapers, she got those from the recycling room in the basement despite having more than adequate funds to purchase her own. Aunt Catherine was the intellectual aunt , the city slicker, we would say. We underestimated her classy taste in clothes when she and Aunt Ellie would shop for us; we were drawn toward trendy junk at the Smithhaven mall and Aunt C and Aunt Ellie were upscale Manhattanites. How foolish we were! She introduced us to all kinds of museums , art shows and other cultural events. The Frick was her favorite. She would take us down the Highline and show us the hotel where our grandparents were married, the Old Homestead.

She was a creature of habit and loved her pbs shows like Call the Midwife and Masterpiece Theatre. She even did some research for the New York Public Library for several years.

Aunt Catherine’s sense of humor was like no other. She would regularly say, “Now let me show you the good jewelry from the bad so when I ‘ pop off’ you will know what is what!” When Kathleen and Maryellen recently and idiotically locked her out of the building following her surgery in June, she was calm and unflappable–but then never let Mary Joan lock the door from that point forward!

Aunt Catherine walked like she was 18 years old until she was ninety. “Keep up girls” rings in my ears to this day. She was a jay walker till almost the end. She walked a mile or two everyday and taught exercise classes in her building into her eighties.

Aunt Catherine was a friend to all.. She lived in a wonderful building in Woodside. A helper and friend to many in her building, she thought nothing of driving neighbors to doctors appointments, or taking them out to the movies or lunch. Her generosity was paid back in spades. As she grew older and more frail, she was the beneficiary of incredible kindness and care at

3965 52nd Street. Doreen and Susan and Jimmy were rocks. And there were others.

After our mother’s passing, Aunt Catherine became a babysitter extraordinaire. The matriarch of our family for some time now, she suffered trials of great nieces and nephews falling off swings and downstairs. She was fearless. When our Dad fell emotionally ill after Mom died, Aunt Catherine had no other job but to help him heal. She led us through that tough time.

Her family and friends–including six nieces and nephews- and twenty grand nieces and nephews, plus six great grand nieces and nephews– will miss her and remember her kindness and her joy.