The first friend I made when I moved to Mariposa in 2007, and it was a friendship that endured until October 30, 2015 when the one thing she could not beat down with the sheer force of her will and her well-schooled tongue, Cancer, took her away. We should all mourn her loss. It was the best interest of her community that drove this old lady to every week’s Board of Supervisors meeting.  Beware if she had a burr in her saddle, you would most certainly hear about it – be it in public, or if you were lucky, in a hushed chat during a break. She left many in her wake and she wielded her own power with her mind, among the sharpest I’ve ever encountered. Ruth Catalan exuded spirit and what’s right about living in this small community. I would call on the board to certainly grace the town she loved with a permanent reminder, lest you forget she owned your behinds – you would come and go, Ruth would remain.

I loved that about her. I also loved that she cared for all life – down to the smallest mouse. She was surrounded on her property by the wild and the tame. Even I was privileged to visit many times. I feel most fortunate to have known this woman at this particular time in both our lives. She enjoyed my banter with her, the chiding – by all means, good natured. But she was also a bit shy when I would occasionally quote her in my original capacity here as a reporter for the weekly newspaper. I saw a different side of her then, one that was shy, actually blushing, and almost embarrassed to be singled out in a little weekly newspaper report. She was relevant from the first time I saw her in action to the day she died. I, for one, will not forget her impact on me as a human being.  When last we spoke, her head bald with a cheeky hat I immediately poked fun of, and we were good to go. She said she didn’t fear dying, knew it was coming. What she didn’t let on was that she knew full well exactly how dire her condition was but that Yankee pride would not allow her to tell me then.

Thank you for being that good woman I’ve always looked for. You made a dreary part of my job a whole lot brighter. To my life you added even more over the years since my little-lamented departure from the field of my choosing. At least I will always know that she read every word I wrote and could quote some stories unrelated to what her many and varied interests were chapter and verse. I was flattered that our respect was mutual. To that, I feel unworthy at the moment, but I’m trying.

Bob Linneman
Exiled journalist in hiding
Mariposa, CA.