Monday, January 10, 2022

Ready, Not Ready (A tribute to Cathy Perkins)

by: Donnell Ann Bell

On December 21, 2021, The Stiletto Gang lost a blog partner and friend. Cathy Perkins passed away. She was able to celebrate her 41st wedding anniversary with her husband, and I know firsthand how proud and delighted she was with her daughters, spouses, and grandchildren. These people were her world.

For the most part, Cathy Perkins was a private person. In this blogpost, I’d like to celebrate the dynamic person I knew, and why I enjoyed her company so much. Cathy Perkins had a soft Southern drawl, a great laugh, a terrific sense of humor, and a gleam in her eye. She enjoyed exercising and was serious about her health. Her myriad interests spanned from finance and science (chemical engineering was her first degree), to walking her dogs, to working with stained glass, and, of course, writing. 

I met Cathy at the start of her writing career, after judging her unpublished entry, The Professor, in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. Later, we would serve on committees and a board together, and we periodically texted or phoned to catch up on the goings-on in our careers.

Whether close by or across the country, she loved to attend writing retreats, places where she was in her element and her most productive. Before COVID-19, the women in her retreat group met yearly and were very special to her.

I attended two Left Coast Crime conferences, one in Monterey, California, the other in Portland Oregon. Cathy and I roomed together in Portland where the staff stashed us next to an obnoxious chiming elevator filled with coming-and-going attendees. Didn’t matter, we spent the whole night gabbing anyway. 


Cathy Perkins on a panel at Left Coast Crime


Authors D.V. Berkom, Donnell Bell and Cathy Perkins



Authors Donnell Bell, Susan Boyer, Cathy Perkins & Allison Brennan


Cathy was not one to brag about her education or her successes. The only time I heard her beyond excited was the night she called me from Nashville to tell me The Body in the Beaver Pond had just won the prestigious Killer Nashville contest. That was so cool because I had beta read two versions of the book–the first draft was good—the final version, was outstanding. “This manuscript is ready,” I told her. “You need to get it out there.”

“Soon,” she promised, “When I’m ready.”


I also beta read Calling for the Money, book three of her Holly Price Financial series. In this book, I discerned a better understanding of this financial whiz behind the words and why she was the perfect author to write this series. She traveled constantly during her financial career, and did much of her writing on airplanes. More than once I asked her when she planned to retire.

“Working on it,” she’d say. “When I’m ready.”  

Always a planner, she and her husband had purchased a secluded property in Washington state, they were clearing a tree-filled lot, and were building their dream home. I never got to see the property in person, but trust me, I saw it in my mind’s eye when I read The Body in the Beaver Pond. Cathy occasionally described the labor-intensive maintenance and the construction woes, mostly laughing when she relayed the drama. 

The dilapidated cabin that her protagonist Keri Isles inherits is an exaggerated structure for the real deal. In its place, stands the Perkins’s long-awaited home with its stunning vistas, which eventually came to fruition.

In March of 2020, the Perkins came to visit my husband and me in Las Cruces. COVID was just starting to rear its awful head, and I’m grateful we had these few days to spend together.



Author Cathy Perkins in Monterey

In closing, Cathy Perkins did more living in her six decades of life than many people do who are granted an additional thirty. She loved, lived, traveled, and gave of herself to numerous volunteer organizations and charitable causes. I still have her text messages and I confess I’ve saved her last voicemail. At some point I’ll probably delete it. Maybe . . . when I’m ready. For now, I’m not ready. Rest in Peace, Cathy.


Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author, including finalist in the 2020 Colorado Book Award, and the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards for her first straight suspense Black Pearl. Book two is on her editor’s desk and she’s working on Book Three. You can learn more about her other books or find her on Facebook, Twitter, or BookBub. Sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.com

 

 

 

21 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your friendship with Cathy. I will miss her.

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  2. Donnell, what a beautiful tribute! Thank you for writing this.

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  3. Many thanks for giving this remembrance, Donnell. I feel I know her a little better now and am sad that we will never meet in person. RIP, Cathy and may your memory be a blessing.

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  4. Thanks for writing this Donnell. Can't even type without tears. :(

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  5. Beautiful tribute to a beautiful lady who left us way too soon.

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  6. A very touching tribute, Donnell. Thank you for sharing your memories of Cathy with us.

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  7. Thanks for this lovely tribute to Cathy, Donnell. My heart goes out to her family.

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  8. Thanks, Donnell. A wonderful and heartfelt tribute to Cathy.

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  9. Thank you for sharing these wonderful memories with us, Donnell. What a beautiful tribute.

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  10. What a lovely tribute, Donnell. Thank you. I had the opportunity to email back and forth with Cathy a little bit not long ago and her warmth and kindness shined through. I wish I'd had a chance to meet her. A terrible loss.

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  11. Thank you everyone. It was my pleasure to know Cathy, and my pleasure to honor her. I agree it's a tragic loss, and I treasure her memory.

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  12. That was a wonderful tribute, Donnell. Cathy sounds like an amazing woman.

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  13. A beautiful tribute. My deepest sympathy to Cathy's family and friends, and to you, Donnell.

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  14. A lovely tribute to a wonderful woman and writer, who was a major contributor to this blog for many years. Cathy will truly be missed by all of us.

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  15. Donnell, thank you for this beautifully written tribute. I remember seeing Cathy at Malice Domestic. She was a great writer and friend.

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  16. Donnell, that is an absolutely beautiful tribute.

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  17. lovely things about Cathy. Thank you for sharing your memories and your heart.

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  18. Great tribute, Donnell. I didn't know Cathy well but we were both RWA 2008 Golden Heart Finalists, an experience we both cherished. She will be missed.

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