by Suzanne Morris
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...is how I chose, in the end, to remember her name on the prayer list to be read aloud in Sunday worship. Not Catherine, Princess of Wales or Kate, as she is familiarly known, but rather, simply, Catherine. Not because I wanted to avoid raising the ire of anyone who disapproves of the British monarchy’s continued existence, or starting a dialogue in hushed tones about how shabbily the Royals had treated poor Meghan. Not to put aside the question of whether or not anyone outside the royal family and the healthcare professionals ministering to her has a right to know the precise location of the 42-year-old woman’s disease or the degree of its advance. No, in the end, I wrote down simply, Catherine because I believe the frail-looking woman, wife, and mother of three, sitting alone on a bench in a striped sweater that appeared a little too large on her frame marshaling all her energy to assuage the world’s insatiable desire for information will always be, in the sight of God, simply, Catherine.
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Suzanne Morris is a novelist with eight published works, and a poet. Her poems have appeared in several anthologies, and in online poetry journals including The New Verse News, The Texas Poetry Assignment, and Stone Poetry Quarterly. She resides in Cherokee County, Texas.
Suzanne has set the Princess of Wales before us and opened us to thoughts and feelings beyond what any news account or feature piece could.