Catherine Cavanagh

Catherine Cavanagh, February 22, 1922May 23, 2012 And did you get what you wanted from this life even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself Beloved on this earth. -- "Late Fragment" by Raymond Carver Catherine Layfield Luhn Cavanagh passed away after a long illness on the morning of Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at the New Britain Hospital for Special Care, where she had been a patient since January 13. Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, Catherine was the daughter of the late John Andrew and Hannah Catherine Layfield Luhn. She attended Friends School. An aspiring actress, she went to Hollywood at age 17, where she modeled, took dramatics training and met her future husband, the late Paul Michael Cavanagh, also an actor. They were married in 1946, settled in Los Angeles and had one daughter, Joan Katharine Margaret, born in 1954. The Cavanaghs moved to Baltimore in 1960, where Catherine renewed old friendships and family ties. She was widowed in 1964 and struggled to raise her daughter alone. But she also believed in having fun, and she enjoyed seeing movies and plays; taking her daughter and sometimes her daughter's friends on trips to New York, Atlantic City, Ocean City, and New England; and dining out with friends. She presided over a large brood of felines and saved one of them from the jaws of a fierce German Shepherd, literally snatching the cat out of its mouth. The cat lived to an old age, and Catherine sported a huge finger, from a calcium deposit at the joint where it was broken, for the rest of her life. She moved to New Haven, CT in 1978 to be near her daughter who had moved there in 1977. She worked for several years before retirement at Consiglio's Flower Cart, where she made many friends and became a familiar figure selling flowers at her station outside Yale New Haven Hospital. She and her daughter went to England, Scotland and France together twice in the late 1980s, revisiting places she had seen as a child. She also traveled with her daughter to New Mexico and went several times to New York City to see plays and have lunch at Sardi's and tea at the Algonquin Hotel. In addition to these treats, she truly enjoyed mowing the lawn at the home she shared with her daughter until 2006, and walking to nearby stores and restaurants, where she made new friends. Her illness began with a series of small strokes at age 70, but she overcame some of their debilitating effects and continued to try to enjoy her life until facing ever more serious challenges in recent years. In addition to her daughter, Catherine is survived by dear friends Doris Neumann of Baltimore; Sal Scafidi of Philadelphia; and Andrew Calandrelli, Paula and Frank Panzarella and Debbie Elkin of New Haven; as well as many others whose lives she touched and who will remember her always. She was pre-deceased by two other dear New Haven friends, Christine Kokolakis and Dennis Hamilton. Catherine had a tenacious will to live, and she fought as long and hard as she could to stay. She was supported in that struggle by her friends and caretakers over the years. Her daughter gives special thanks to her compassionate and insightful cardiologist, Dr. Douglas Israel; the excellent and caring staff at the Hospital for Special Care; many of the caregivers at Orange Health Care Center, especially Kathy Komlos, Wendy Ormond and Linda Mebane; and all others who helped ease her way to "feel herself beloved on this earth." A brief service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 25th, at Erickson -Hansen Funeral Home, 411 S. Main Street, New Britain, CT. Internment will be at Lorraine Park Mausoleum , 5608 Dogwood Rd., in Woodlawn, MD, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 26th. In lieu of flowers, please send memorial contributions in Catherine's name to the Hospital for Special Care Foundation, 2150 Corbin Avenue, New Britain, CT 06053 and/or Tara Farm Rescue, c/o Bonnie Jeanne Gorden, 670 Babcock Hill Rd., Coventry, CT 06238.