Life Long Friends Meet Again

77 years after they graduated, former Taylor roomies and life-long friends meet again

By JIM GARRINGER
religion@muncie.gannett.com

To the average person, Dorothy Miller is a 99-year-old dynamo with a quick step and sharp mind; but to Althea Jane Catlin, she is a wish come true.

Since their first meeting 81 years ago, the two have been close friends, but time, geography and life's unpredictable turns have conspired together to separate the two. Today Catlin, 100, lives in Columbus, Ind., and Miller lives in Angola.

Enter Never Too Late, an organization that grants seniors' wishes. Last Saturday, Catlin and her family boarded a stretch limousine, chartered by Never Too Late, for Taylor University in Upland for Catlin's first face-to-face visit with Miller since 1979.

"I said, 'Would you like to see Dorothy again?'" recounted Catlin's daughter, Dianna Ross. Acting on her mother's definitive "yes" answer, she worked with Never Too Late head Bob Haverstick and officials at Taylor, the college where Catlin and Miller first met as freshmen in 1925, to arrange the date and time these longtime friends could reunite.

'You haven't changed'
During their lives, the two have shared some striking similarities. Catlin's birthday is March 3; Miller's is March 5. They graduated together in 1929, and their 1942 weddings were only hours apart. "But my dad pursued her for 11 years," quickly added Miller's daughter, Judith VanZanten.

It was a friendship that was born when Miller noticed the size of Catlin's trunk. The two had just moved into the newly completed Magee-Campbell-Wisconsin dormitory when Miller compared her meager suitcase with Catlin's hope chest.

"I thought you dressed better," she laughed. "I did," was Catlin's answer.

While the two only roomed together for a year (Miller's younger sister was her roommate the next year), they continued their friendship, either with meetings, telephone calls or greeting cards, after graduating from college and having careers and families.

"Sometimes if I didn't write to her, she'd call me up and see if I was OK," Miller reflected. "I guess our natures, or personalities, are the same. Of all the ones I've ever known, she's the only one I've stayed in contact with."

"You haven't changed a bit," said Catlin, cradling Miller's face in her hands.

True to old friends who had some catching-up to do, the ladies talked about nearly everything. Through recollections of former classmates and hang-outs to college professors (one in particular who drove a red sports car and was rumored to have proposed to his wife by rowing her out in the middle of a lake and refusing to return to shore until she accepted), the two literally turned back time. Well, at least most of the time.

"Do you remember Miss Edwards (the missionary) from China?" asked Miller. "No," said Catlin with some hesitation.

"Did we have an alarm clock?" Miller queried. "I think we did," came Catlin's answer. "Your memory is better than mine."

Since she's been out of college 77 years, Miller felt safe confessing that she used to fall asleep in chapel.

But she added that Taylor's chapels in those days had a drowsy, post-lunchtime 3 p.m. starting time that might tax the hardiest saint.

'We are survivors'
The tragic accident that claimed the lives of four students and a staff member the previous Wednesday also entered the conversation. Ross had offered to cancel the reunion but was encouraged to come by Taylor officials.

"I was as sad as if it was my own family; I was really touched," Miller said, struggling to hold back tears.

"I was glad to be able to be here; I wanted to see you," Catlin said. "(You've) been a good friend."

"We are survivors," answered Miller.

The two made an impression upon student dining-hall workers who had a brief conversation with them. "It was incredible ... I talked to Dorothy the most; she was so sharp," said Taylor sophomore Brittany Cook of Rapid City, S.D. "She asked where I was from; I said. 'South Dakota.' She said she visited when there were only two faces on (Mt. Rushmore)."

Inevitably, the time came for the two ladies' returns to their respective homes, but family members said they hope to bring them back in October for Homecoming and maybe again next year.

"Being here and being at Taylor at the same time is quite something," said Miller before turning to Catlin and asking, "How would it be if I live to be 100, and I could wish you to see me?"

Director of news services at Taylor University, Jim Garringer is a freelance writer and photographer living in Muncie.