She Was ‘Significant’

On Nov. 9, the people of Orange County gave thanks to God for the brilliant life of Kathleen Mellon at her funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Monroe. I had the honor of knowing Kay as a teacher and, later, as principal of St. Columba School in Chester. She was remarkable in her ways of dealing with children and adults and addressing problems and issues.

Some years later, after I had been transferred to a parish in Westchester and Kay was the director of Bishop Dunn School in Newburgh, we met at one of the many funerals or weddings that drew us back to Chester, and I spoke to her about how different my new parish was—and how much I enjoyed it. And she said: “We seem to be very much alike; I will always be a teacher, instructing people and learning from them. This fulfills my life.”

I was so struck by her words because they were so true in my understanding of my own vocation as a priest, and her vocation as a true servant of God.

There is a modern descriptive category which I often cringe at and resent: “Significant Other.” It sounds like that indefinable “person” is somewhere between a “nobody” and a “statistic.” However, it seems to be the perfect description of Kay Mellon for each one of us who knew her in the many stages other life. There are so many of us who knew her as a “significant” person because of what she meant for us, and what we learned from her example of Catholic living.

Msgr. Francis P. Gorman

Bronx