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They all do not come home, but life does go on..
by kevinbarry at 11/11/2011 10:09:47 PM
Here is proof.
By now, you have visited the earlier blog just below this one and it left you with a cliff-hanger.
Just like a TV show that keeps you in suspense until the next season.
Before Lt. James Cathey went to Iraq, his wife was pregnant but they did not know the sex of the baby. Katherine knitted a green baby blanket while her husband James was at Camp Lejeune. The night before James shipped off to Iraq, Katherine asked James to sleep with the blanket so his smell would be on the blanket when their baby was born.
The day she found out that they were having a boy, she could hardly wait to call James in Iraq and tell him he was having a son - before she could make that call, she was visited by two Marines who were there to tell her James died in combat.
After doing the earlier blog, I searched for a while to find out about the birth of their son and to find out how they are doing - call me crazy but I did not want the story to end there.
Before Jim was buried, Katherine Cathey spent the last night with her husband. When she closed his coffin, she placed an ultrasound picture of their baby over his heart.
The baby was not due until Jan. 1. Early in the week before Christmas his mother and grandmother felt something was not right so they went into the hospital.
"They got a heartbeat when they put the monitor on but they weren't sensing that he was moving at all," Katherine said. "I was very scared."
Doctors rushed Katherine into the operating room.
"They all for the most part knew I had lost my husband and I couldn't go through losing the baby too," Katherine said.
After an emergency caesarean section, James Cathey Jr. (Jimmy, for short) arrived strong and healthy. He was an answer to so many prayers.
"I just looked at his face and that's when I started crying because I thought he's so beautiful," Katherine said. "I really feel like Jim has watched over me and the baby a lot."
Jim was the kind of son who would make any family proud. He graduated from CU with honors in just 3 years. He led his men by example. He had a sense of humor and he had a sense of honor. Although he never got the news, he knew in his heart that this baby would be a boy.
"His dad was such an amazing person that if he's anything like his dad he will be an amazing person too," Katherine said.
Jimmy also has an amazing mother.
"She's been so strong," one relative said. "She's been an inspiration to all of us."
Katherine Cathey, a widow before her first wedding anniversary, has a true Christmas gift.
"When Jim would sleep, he did this funny thing with his lips and the baby does the same thing," Katherine said. "I felt, in a way, like I had him back kind of. He makes me really happy. So happy that you cry."
Katherine has made a separate peace far from the battlefield that took her husband and Jimmy's father before his time.
"I'm at peace knowing that my husband loved me very much and I loved him very much," Katherine said. "We brought a child into this world. He's a miracle and he'll be something that will bring joy to my life for the rest of my life."
So, it took a lot of searching, but I finally found a picture that I could access and post of mommy and baby, here is a little picture of little Jimmy being held by his truly amazing and loving mother.
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