Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Catherine H. Steele, M.D. 1924-2019
She had been slowly failing over time, but began a sharp downturn around the 21st or 22nd. I flew to Montana and arrived on the 24th. She was in a small assisted living facility, a wonderful place where they gave her exceptional care. When I arrived, they told me they doubted she'd survive the night. On the other hand, my mother is... was.. very tough. I stayed with her that night, and the next. David (one of my brothers) arrived Christmas night, and she was still hanging on. David is an MD and a minister. He said a prayer with her, and we talked until after 1:00 AM. I went to sleep in Mom's room about 2:30; I awoke at 4:10 and immediately knew she was gone.
My mother was a very smart, strong, good person. She had a very successful career as a dermatologist (one of her patients once told me how she'd saved his life by spotting and removing a melanoma that otherwise would have killed him). She raised four successful sons. She had a great life with my father, also an MD. She was very active, and hunted big game, fished, backpacked, hiked, did yoga, and even after she was confined to a wheel chair in her last few years she exercised and remained as active as she could be. Her yoga instructor, Pam Quinn, worked with her to her last days.
Mom was fiercely in favor of women's individual rights, and hence had great contempt for feminism and its cult of collective victimhood. She believed every individual should be self responsible, and hence believed in freedom. She was libertarian (she voted for Ron Paul for president) and had no sympathy for anything that strengthened the power of the state and those who run it. She especially opposed socialized medicine and gun control.
When I was five days old, Mom began reading aloud to me daily. My father told me about this. This is how one makes their children's brains develop, it's perhaps why I have been able to go as far as I have intellectually. In Mom's last hours I read aloud to her (Dostoevsky's The Possessed).
My mother was not particularly sentimental. She believed that when someone passed away, it was not an excuse for those remaining to slack off, and told me this. She said we're supposed to keep at the business of living.
She is right. I will miss her greatly. All the more reason to work very hard in 2020 to make it a great year.
Happy New Year. Onward!
Photo: My mother with her signed copy of Larry Arnn's "Churchill's Trial." She read it several times.
Photo: My mother with her signed copy of Larry Arnn's "Churchill's Trial." She read it several times.
