“If this book has a heart,” Rob Garver has written, “it is Cathy Caldemeyer.” 

She envisioned this book, championed it, and recruited, supported and trusted the team who would help her bring it to the world, forever perpetuating her father’s legacy. Over the course of that journey, our little team came to know Cathy as an inimitable force in her right. Our respect, admiration and affection for her grew — and our focus expanded: we started out writing a book about John Smale only to realize by the time we finished that, more importantly, we were writing this book for Cathy Caldemeyer. It was a labor of love and gratitude for her friendship and her example.

Our journey together — which, in total, spanned four years — revealed all that we came to treasure about Cathy. She was so deeply intelligent, bringing a wonderful blend of insight and wit to every conversation. She was caring and remarkably empathetic, traits that were never more evident than when she offered both patience and wisdom to Rob during the loss of his father as he struggled to deal with that loss and find his way back to the book. She was incredibly trusting, inspiring us to reach higher as the book evolved, always with a gentle hand on our shoulders and never with an untrusting look over them. And she was unrelentingly committed to ensuring that the world not only knew John Smale’s story but also the story of John and Phyllis and how their love endures.

Most fundamentally, Cathy was courageous, direct and willing to stare reality in the face no matter what. She wanted an honest telling of her father’s story and brought us into the interior of his life with both candor and compassion. And, of course, she confronted the end of her life by living every last minute of it to the fullest.

Cathy embodied the finest characteristics of her father — and she influenced every single word in this book. She was a woman of uncommon courage, strength and grace. We will forever be grateful to have known her.

She will be here, with all of us, forever.

Rob Garver, Greg Icenhower and John Pepper