Merry Christmas East (12-21-09)

Merry Christmas East

I got an email today loaded with pictures of the great east coast Atlantic blizzard of 2009. Twenty-five inches of snow, roads blocked, public transportation grinding to a halt, and nearly everyone inside waiting for the blizzard to pass.

Nearly everyone. Everyone, apparently, except for my sister Cait. Her email said, “Senate's forcing me to work today, tomorrow, 1 a.m. Monday, Christmas Eve...seriously.”

That’s Cait for you. She is twelve years older than me, and for as long as I can remember, she has always been working. She decided to follow in our Grandfather Goodwin’s footsteps and pursue a life in journalism. And what a life she has led.

She has been a big city editor in Dallas and K.C. She and her remarkable husband John raised two kids in Kansas City until, after orchestrating the Star’s coverage of a Republican National Convention, she so impressed the execs at a rival publication that they offered her an even better job. The catch was that the job was in Washington D.C..

Cait now edits for Congressional Quarterly, a watchdog publication for our government. When Congress is in session, Cait is on the job, blizzard or no. She is living her dream and succeeding in the largest arena imaginable. I can’t tell you how proud I am to have her as my big sister.

Cait came to visit us this summer, and she fit right in. Jim and Bob took time out of their busy Monday night schedule to give her a tour of their modest offices. Cait was like a school kid, in awe of our local paper and what we have in our Hill City Times.

“This is what a newspaper should be,” she kept saying. She and her husband, who is also a journalist for UPI (United Press International) have grown a bit weary of the games associated with the national papers. Our small town paper, in her eyes, has a lot more integrity.

More than any of my siblings, Cait remembers Granpa Bill and the Columbus Daily Advocate. She remembers him writing the stories, setting the type, working the big press, delivering the papers. Small town papers still holds a certain magic for my sister, even as she edits for a national publication that stops for nothing and no one. She may be a big city success, but she still cherishes the memories of summer time visits to a small town.

So I’m sending a big “Merry Christmas” east, along with a year’s subscription to the Hill City Times. From the Goodwins to the Hendels, here’s wishing for safe travel, a restful holiday, and warm weather to melt all that snow.