CATHRYN MARIE CASAMO

Cathy's Appearance/Disappearance
(continued)
by
Larry Hankin

         It was the same on the flight back. She came out of it a bit when she saw Katy, but it took a while.
         Three days later I came back from rehearsal and a friend was there, babysitting Katy. Cathy had called her to watch Katy ‘til I got home. Cathy didn’t come home that night. Nor the next. No reported sightings by her friends. I resumed taking Caitlin with me pretty much everywhere, mainly because I liked her company and Caitlin seemed up for it. She took crayons and a coloring book everywhere and if she got bored, out came the crayons and pad. 5 days: no Cathy; no word, no trace. 6 days. Cathy had disappeared. I called, searched, asked: Gone. Into thin air. Again. This time I just waited. A couple of days after that I got a call from Mike, the Prankster’s cameraman. He said he was calling from Berkeley, California, just across the Bay Bridge. Cathy was with him, staying on his houseboat. I figured a houseboat is familiar for Cathy so that’s a cool thing. He said he didn’t think Cathy was able to take care of Katy so I said I’d take care of Caitlin ‘til we can get in touch with her real father and/or Cathy’s parents.
         Katy and I hung out for a couple of more days – to me it was a Mutt & Jeff act: we were a well-oiled team by now. Katy was cool. Then I got a call from Mike saying Cathy was gone again. He didn’t know where. And after a week or so I got hold of her real father, who lived across the bay. A few days later this nice guy, who was Caitlin’s real father, came by the apartment and took Katy home. A short time after that, I got a call from Katy’s dad. He asked me to meet Katy at her day-care school in Sausalito which was much nearer to me than where they lived at the time. Katy and he were moving far away and Katy wanted to say goodbye to me. The next day I rode over the bridge to her school, her teacher met me and got Katy out of her play class and Katy and I spoke and hugged and said goodbye.
         I didn’t see Cathy again until many years later when I ran into her in New York City with her then musician boyfriend, and then about 2 years after that, I ran into her back in North Beach in San Francisco. She was living alone over by Golden Gate Park. We hung out for a few days, but we were both very different people by then and I was about to move to Los Angeles in another 2 weeks. When I did, we lost track of each other. I never saw her again.
         Years later, I heard that Cathy was living with a painter up in Northern California. And then I heard she passed away. More time flew by and then I got a phone call from a young woman who said she was Caitlin: Cathy Casamo’s daughter. She wanted to talk to me about her mom and about Cathy’s disappearance in Houston for 3 days. It was amazing to see Caitlin after all those years. She was a smart, strong young woman; married, with a kid of her own. We talked about Cathy and Houston and where Cathy had been since then and I remember being awed by Caitlin all over again. I came of age in the ‘60’s in San Francisco, and Cathy and little Katy let me share a part of it with them and showed me worlds I could never see without them. It was an amazing gift. And Cathy’s laugh. I always thought that it was like if you told Cathy a joke and she laughed, she not only got it; she got you.

Larry Hankin, Marinadel Rey, 4.3.10