Obituary

Catherine Ann Sullivan Hatch was born August 29th, 1935 in Huntington, New York, to Joseph and Josephine Sullivan. She was the youngest of six children. Her family lived in Oceanside, on Long Island, and Cathy spent her childhood summers swimming and playing at the shore. She graduated in 1953 from Oceanside High School, and spent a year at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, but then switched to secretarial school. She worked and lived in New York City for a while before moving back to Long Island. In the summer of 1958, while having coffee in a coffee shop with a friend, she caught the eye of an Air Force airman named David Hatch, originally from Bellingham, Washington, but stationed on Long Island and working part time at the shop. He talked Cathy into giving him her phone number, and six months later, on February 7th, 1959, they were married at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Oceanside.
The next year, David was honorably discharged and the newlyweds moved west, first to Bellingham where they had their first child Linda, in 1961, and a year later to the Shoreline district in north Seattle, where their sons Jeffrey, in ’63, and Thomas, in ’66, were born. David initially worked as a draftsman in Seattle, but then he went to work for Puget Power in Bellevue. Soon after, Cathy got a job as a secretary at Boeing, but eventually joined David at Puget Power in an effort to shorten their commute. When David got a job as an engineering sales representative for Maydwell & Hartzell, just across the Mercer Island floating bridge in Seattle, they decided to move to Mercer Island in 1970 in order to raise their family in a smaller community with good schools, and to be closer to David’s office. They were both involved in their children’s activities, and Cathy was the president of the PTA at Mercer View Elementary School, and started a scholarship program in the mid 1970’s. Cathy encouraged her children to try many activities, and signed them up for tennis, swimming and bowling lessons. They were very involved in soccer as well, with David coaching Jeff’s soccer team and Cathy faithfully attending games.
Cathy worked at several different jobs on Mercer Island, always seeking some level of flexibility in her employment in an effort to combine her contribution to the family income with staying involved in her children’s activities. In 1981, after their 14-year-old son Tom was diagnosed with cancer, Cathy quit working outside of the home to focus on Tom full time, driving him to the many appointments he had or just staying with him when he was in the hospital for treatment. She kept detailed records of Tom’s care, to the point that she would sometimes correct the doctors when they contradicted each other, but in spite of her efforts as well as those of Tom’s doctors, he died of complications from a bone marrow transplant four months after his diagnosis.
After Tom’s death, Cathy took a break from work, but after a year she returned to the workforce and got a job as a secretary at Farmer’s New World Life on Mercer Island. With her remaining children grown and gone, she could now pay more attention to her career. Her determination to succeed landed her a series of promotions, until she became the Supervisor of Office Services. She loved her job and the people she worked with, and she took advantage of many of the educational opportunities that Farmer’s offered to its employees. She retired in 2001. She and David decided to sell their Mercer Island home in 2012 so they could move to the Fairwood area to be closer to their children and grandchildren.
Cathy adored having pets, and the neighborhood cats on Mercer Island and around their Renton apartment as well, relied on her for their mid-day snack. She had a soft spot for strays, both animals and people, and many times she’d get home from work to find a teen-aged friend of one of her kids sitting alone in the kitchen eating a snack. She also frequented the theater, and was responsible for introducing her grand-daughter Caitlin to the joys of Broadway in New York City.
Cathy loved to garden, and kept a beautiful “rose alley” garden next to their Mercer Island home, as well as planting flowers each year in the boxes that lined their deck. When she and David moved to their apartment, she immediately took over the garden area near their patio and insisted that David and their grandson Nathan lay bark down and plant some shrubs and containers of flowers. She also enjoyed travel, and was able to visit Europe several times with her sister, as well as making many trips to Hawaii and New York. One of her favorite trips was an Alaskan cruise with her sister, joined by David halfway through. Several months after her retirement, she and David decided to tour Washington D.C., so on September 10th, 2001 they flew out of Seattle, excited about their upcoming adventure. Because of a delayed lay-over flight, they didn’t get into Washington D.C. until after midnight on September 11th, so they cancelled their early morning bus tour of the Pentagon and decided to sleep in. When they came down to breakfast, the entire hotel lobby was riveted to the T.V., watching in horror as the events of September 11th, 2001 unfolded in New York and Washington. Cathy and her sister climbed a little hill near their hotel and watched a plume of smoke rise over the Pentagon. The entire city of Washington D.C. shut down that day, and Cathy and David never got their tour, but instead returned to Philadelphia and visited with family until they could fly back to Seattle a week later. Cathy’s last trip was to New York in the fall of 2014, where she was able to see her sisters and sister-in-law, and to visit many of her favorite spots where she went as a child.
After Cathy broke her leg in a fall, in May of 2012, her health became more fragile. In her determined way, she resolved to live a healthier life, and gave up her 50-year smoking habit permanently. Even though she fell again one year later, she continued to show the same resilient spirit and bounced back yet again. She started to walk more, and attended church at St. Anthony’s in Renton, every Sunday, sitting in the front row while watching her daughter and grand-daughter play piano for and sing in the choir. Often, two or three of her grandkids would join her in front, and she immediately began making friends at her new parish.
Even though she worked hard to gain strength, her health continued to decline. After going into UW/Valley Medical Center for some heart problems and an infection, Cathy passed away very peacefully on September 8th, 2015. She was surrounded by her family, with David holding her hand as she died. She is survived by her husband of 56 years, David; her daughter and son-in-law Linda and Alan Halvorson of Renton, WA, their children Caitlin Halvorson of Renton, and Lt. Christian Halvorson of Biloxi, MS, and her son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Laura Hatch, and their children, Michael, Joseph, Jeremy (stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McCord near Tacoma, WA), Nathaniel, David, Johnny, Carina and Steven, all of Renton; as well as her sisters, Mary Abel of Oceanside, NY, and Jane Sullivan of Steelmantown, NJ, sisters-in-law Joanne Sullivan of Audobon, PA, and Shirley (Hatch), and her husband, Chris Taylor of Kent WA, along with multiple nieces and nephews. There will be a Rosary Vigil service on Wednesday, September 23rd at 7:00 p.m., and a Funeral Mass on Thursday, September 24th at 10:30 a.m. followed by a reception; all at St. Anthony Catholic Church, 314 S 4th St., Renton, WA. A private Graveside service will take place at a later date at Greenacres Memorial Park in Ferndale, WA.