40 Plus Years

By Allen Cato

This book of poems began forty years ago when our family moved from Evansville, Indiana, to Hillsborough, North Carolina, a small town near Durham and Chapel Hill. We moved into a large house on a ninety-acre farm. Our family consisted of my wife, Adrian, and our three sons, Jo (age eleven) and identical twins, Mike and Dan (age eight).

On Christmas Eve 1975, I thought of a poem to write to my wife, Adrian. I put it in the tree that evening, and she found it Christmas morning. She was so fond of it that she asked that I write her a poem each Christmas. So for the next forty-plus years, with only few exceptions, I wrote a Christmas Eve poem each year. The subject matter varied but was always tied in to our family and Adrian.

Since we lived on a farm, we tried farming for the years the sons were at home. We tried raising cattle, and one of my favorite monikers for Adrian, Mrs. Moo, was derived from it. She was always hopping around very busily, and that is why I also refer to her as Toad.

Jo married and had three children: Caleb, Megan, and Jacob. He was later divorced but remarried to Kelli. Mike married Sonya, and they have three children: Michael, Elizabeth, and Richard. Dan married Kimmie, and they have two children: Sarah and Kenneth.

To me, the most amazing thing about these poems is that on every single occasion, without exception, I thought of the poem on Christmas Eve, not a minute before. It became very stressful as each Christmas approached, since I had not a clue of what I was going to write. So many times I thought I was going to have to say that I simply could not think of anything, but each Christmas Eve, something would come to me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524577308

Allen Cato

I had a feral cat named Felix that over many years I tamed. Felix (who took 5 years for me to get close enough to her to realize that she was really Felixia, a female) was my muse who helped me come up with many of the themes for these poems. I have subsequently had a number of cats that are sometime referred to in the poems. But to this day, I am still astounded that I had no idea what I was going to write until Christmas Eve. These poems were all written on Christmas Eve, but the subject matter of many were targeted for our wedding anniversary in January. The several years that are missing are when we were on a trip or when I was recovering from a serious medical problem, such as extensive back surgery, and was not functioning at Christmas Eve. I am going strong today and hope to continue this tradition for many more years. Hopefully, the poems will help you follow the evolution of a family and a very happy marriage for over more than forty years. Special appreciation is extended to Emily Haga for her hours of work and dedication assembling this book; her creative talent integrated the 40 plus years evolution of a family.

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Copyright © 2017 by Allen Cato.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017900876

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-7729-2

                Softcover       978-1-5245-7731-5

                eBook            978-1-5245-7730-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 03/02/2017

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40 Plus Years

Thank You

Need

Gift

Yes

Believing

To Adrian

You

Time

One PLUS One

Clues

One of a Kind

25 Years

Night Before Christmas

Looking Backwards

Caleb

I Need You

I Counted

If You Can Guess It

Back Order

Always

Holidays

A Gift

Close My Eyes

Next Year

A Perfect Wife

Christmas Day

Do You Know?

You’ll Know

Tear

Always Was You

Talking to Felix

Time

Taking Care

50th Anniversary

Adrian’s Christmas Poem

Toad

Looking Ahead

Great Family

Family Together

To Adrian

ADRIANPHOTO.tif

It was 1961, I had just graduated from Duke University and immediately enrolled in the graduate school in Biochemistry. I had a full Fellowship that covered tuition and basic needs, which was fortunate since my parents could not afford to support me. To make a little extra money, I worked as a cashier in the hospital cafeteria. I seldom went out with women because of lack of time and money.

Adrian was in nursing school at Rutherford Hospital in Rutherfordton, NC, and had a scholarship including room and board, because her parents could not afford to pay for her education.

The nurses did a three month rotation at Duke Hospital as part of their training. Adrian and her classmates came through the cafeteria line one Friday, and I later joined them at lunch. I was intrigued by her, and asked her if she would like to play a game of tennis on Saturday. She agreed, but it was raining on Saturday, so we just got together and talked.

Like me, she was too busy with school and responsibilities at home to spend time dating. However, there were 29 days left in her rotation, and we saw each other every day and we never got around to playing tennis. Instead, we would just be together and take advantage of whatever was available on campus. It was many months before I learned that she had never played a game of tennis in her life.

It was years before she