Catherine Stubbs

I was able to study abroad for a semester my sophomore year of college. I lived in the BYU Center in London, just minutes from Kensington Gardens. It was the experience of a lifetime studying Shakespeare from a professor named William Shakespeare (no joke), visiting the Globe theater and going to Barbican to see Othello from the third row. In our English history class we learned about the signing of the Magna Carta and then went to Runnymeade. I loved every minute of it.

For one weekend we were sent out for a live-in experience. Members of our church invited us to come in twos and stay the weekend, showing us a more authentic English experience. My friend, Sara, and I went north to stay with a single woman named Catherine Stubbs, or as she said we could call her, Cathy. She was a humble lady with chapped red legs from walking or riding her bike in the bitter cold in only her knee-length skirt and a sweater. She had a big black dog named Jesse that came everywhere with us. She was generous and kind. At first we were a bit disappointed that she didn’t have a bed for us to sleep in, just blankets on the floor, and her apartment was freezing in the middle of February without any heat, except for a little electric fireplace that she only turned on for short periods of time. Cathy thought we were so fascinated by this heater, that we must not have these in America, for we hovered around it whenever it was on. She fed us meat pie and bland cauliflower and trifle. We quickly recognized that though this weekend was not going to be as we had hoped or planned, it would be a special experience, and it was.

She took us to Durham to show us the cathedral and to York where we toured York Minster and shopped in the Shambles. After showing us around we offered to take her out to dinner and she was gracious to accept and in awe of everything about the restaurant, as she hadn’t eaten in one for many years. That night we helped her paint the room we were sleeping in and hovered some more around the heater. The next day we spent in church and that evening she took us around to meet all of her friends. They welcomed us as family, gave us a drink of orange and a biscuit and shared their stories with us.

Though we were grateful to return to our beds the next day, we recognized that our experience had been unique among the 40 students. All of their host families gave from their abundance and many didn’t even take the time to show their students around. We were hosted in a true spirit of humility and generosity; she gave us all she had and it was more than enough.

A year later I was preparing to serve a mission for our church and Cathy sent me a card with a 20 pound note in it, telling me to use it for something I needed for my mission. I carried that 20 pound note around with me my entire mission and never found anything to spend it on worthy of Cathy’s sacrifice. It is still in my wallet today, a reminder of her kindness, selflessness, generosity and sincere love.