It seems so long ago, but it’s been just a year since local folks came together to perform “The Sound of Music” at College Community Theater at Blue Mountain Community College.

This musical theatre effort involved people of all ages, with the cast coming together not only with musical and thespian talents, learning dance steps, but also working behind the scenes getting costumes and set pieces made. And while the audience tends to notice the lead actors in the ensemble, there are so many others who blend into the background, perhaps go unnoticed, but bring important support to the effort.

That’s the case for so much that goes on in communities across our region. My friend Catherine is this kind of person, the quiet participant whose care for others makes her an important link within her family, her work life, and the personal interests she pursues. I wonder if her occupation in the medical profession has something to do with that. I’ve noticed recently how many people in my acquaintance are or have worked in the field of nursing, for example, who seem to take that concern from their profession into everything they do.

I got to know Catherine through our involvement in local choral groups, and then we spent some time pre-pandemic in social knitting. She often shared who to get to know or what group to get involved with in our town, and knew people across the spectrum, taking a genuine interest in how they were doing, and what was going on in their lives.

Catherine and her family came to Pendleton 40 years ago, after sojourns in the Midwest and Northwest in her early adult life with her husband. The couple followed educational opportunities for the requirements in their professions. For anyone who’s thrived in a supportive family environment, it can be difficult to be far away from those we love as we take on the responsibilities of our adult lives.

Working in a large institutional environment where anonymity is the norm, having children far from grandparents who would lend support, moving yet again to complete a last credential, all of this combines for stressful circumstances. When dire events darken that reality further, so much becomes tenuous. Finding healing and the possibility of happiness becomes a long and arduous journey.

Catherine told me that her sister encouraged her to allow her most painful experiences to be the source of blessing, and look to understand its spiritual impact on her. In the years that followed as life settled into cherished routines, she was able to experience this wisdom in her occupation, as she worked in small rural health centers, where patient interaction in the health care environment extends into the community, during interactions at other events and gatherings.

The ability to be a part of her patients’ care not only through work, but also through the empathy she gained from her own difficult healing journey, has enlarged and deepened her concern for others. Catherine’s interests extend into projects she’s been involved in — prison education programs, which she views as so valuable, as they bring together so many community entities along with volunteer groups as resources to meet the manifold needs of the prison population.

Catherine also sees an important impact of so many community members she has met who are working to provide food and shelter for the unsheltered population here. There are many venues for us to add our efforts, among which include Outreach, the Salvation Army, Altrusa, Stillman dinners, and many services provided by various churches and faith communities.

Especially in this year, when so many have lost so much, her sense of compassion is heightened. She told me about Christmas night driving home and seeing a man alone with a backpack and wondering where he might be going and why he was alone. In her thoughts she reached out to him, and thought of others in this community who are helping the houseless.

Something she said about her work that took her beyond the 9 to 5 stay with me. They are words we can ponder for ourselves, “It is not just a job. You’re contributing to people’s lives.”