CATHERINE MUSHERO

Who? Good question.

This chick is in our senior yearbook. I think I had her in Mrs. Kluczinski's class in the first semester of that year. Other than that, I have not one single memory of her.

I must admit defeat on this one. My people finding skills have been no match for the mysterious Ms. Mushero. I can't even find a single listing in the entire United States for a girl with that name - ever!

Who the hell is she? Where is she? I'm clueless. Her parents names may have been Rod and Sandy. There is a Rod Mushero in Kewaunee. On a whim, I called it and asked for Catherine. A woman said there was no one by that name. She then put me on hold for about 30 seconds, came back, and again repeated that "There is no Catherine." Seems sort of fishy to me. There is a very slight possibility that she may have gotten married and become Catherine Granger. But that's a shot in the dark.

I'm lost on this one. If anyone knows anything at all, let's hear it.

UPDATE - 10/4/07 - Every once in awhile, if I'm bored, I'll go and search the internet for pictures or articles of classmates that I have little post-school information about. So about six weeks ago, I tried to tackle Catherine Mushero once again. As had happened a year-and-a-half ago, I couldn't find any trace of her. So I decided to call the phone number of Rod Mushero once again. I knew that this Rod and Sandy had lived in Two Rivers during the timeframe of my senior year in high school. So my gut told me that these two had to be Catherine's parents.

Well, the same woman I'd spoken to the first time answered again. But this time I took a different approach. I told her I was calling on behalf of the class of 1989, and I was trying to locate everyone for the 20th high school reunion in 2009. It seemed like a pretty reasonable request. Well no sooner had I had my sentence out, when the woman began to yell at me! "Who are you?" "What do you want?" "I can't help you!" "I don't know her!" "There's no Catherine here!"

I didn't get it. I mean, if I had the wrong number, and she really wasn't any relation to her, then why was she being so combative with me? A simple, "I'm sorry, you have the wrong Mushero's" would have convinced me. But the more she spoke, the more I knew she wasn't being honest with me. And she continued to grill me with more and more questions. "I don't even know who you are!" Well, I gave her my real name and reiterated that I was just trying to track people down for the next reunion. Finally she blurted out, "I have no idea where she is!" Then right after she said that, she said again, "I don't know any Catherine!"

Well, that convinced me. She knew Catherine. She was just withholding information from me. And that's fine. She certainly had no obligations to tell me anything. She obviously had her reasons, whatever they may be. I just didn't understand the bitter hostility behind her treatment of me.

Of course once the phone call was over, my mind began to wander. Clearly, there seemed to be some sort of broken relationship between mother and daughter. So I begin to wonder whether Catherine ran away from home, or ran off and got married, joined a commune, was in jail, or any number of things that could have angered her parents to the point where they may no longer have anything to do with her.

Then last night, I get a comment on my blog. You can see it below. According to the comment, it turns out that the woman named Sandy that I spoke with is in fact Catherine's stepmother. Catherine's birth mother left the comment. She also provided an update. Apparently Catherine is now living in Redfield, Arkansas, and is now known as Catherine Morris.

So my thanks go out to Catherine's mother. The mystery is solved. Catherine Mushero was the one and only classmate who graduated that I had been unable to find. And now she's found.

UPDATE - 10/5/07 - Well, I have now received a nice E-mail from Catherine herself. She is in fact alive and well and living in Arkansas. She said she remembers her classmates from her senior year, and wondered when the next reunion would be. I imagine that will be in the summer of 2009. She also said that back in high school, she drove a Chevy Malibu and had a southern accent. That Malibu probably doesn't exist anymore. But I'll bet the accent still does! Lastly, she mentioned that she and her mother had a big laugh reading about my experiences with "the evil stepmother."