Catherine Braun (Giles) Winnell was born on her father’s birthday in Petoskey, Michigan, on Aug. 27, 1946. She passed away at age 77 in Petoskey on Aug. 13, 2024, just two weeks short of her 78th birthday. She had an unrestricted love in her heart that always guided her inner and outer life. Many people knew her and felt close to her because she had that unique ability to genuinely convey acceptance of them, just as they are in that moment. It was remarkable – because it wasn’t always easy.
She was an idea person with a lot of elbow grease to go with the ideas and a willingness to help where help was needed. Her avocational work extended from working with the rural poor in Appalachia to being a founding member of a soup kitchen in the basement of the old downtown Salvation Army in Ann Arbor, MI, to being the caregiver to her parents in their final 2-3 years, to helping struggling families who needed life skills in order to retain their children, to founding a short-lived St. Vincent de Paul Society chapter in the basement of the former monastery next to St. Francis Xavier Church, and finally to the field of addiction for the last 20 years. And that doesn’t even touch what she did in the context of her family: loving her siblings, loving her four children and giving them a base to build their lives on, and always being there. While her inner beauty sprang from a well deep within, she received great support and inspiration in her relationship with the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters, part of whose mission was to serve the poor and of whom she was a life-long Associate member. She was a remarkable person.
In the early 2000s, she initiated, and along with a couple of her friends, formed a support group for families who found themselves swamped in a morass of issues ranging from the personal to the legal when dealing with a drug-addicted child. She was a groundbreaker, a gentle bulldozer, who was a loving but persistent fly into the ointment of the legal system, insisting that the offender’s humanity must be part of the solution. Because of her, the legal system knew the public was beginning to demand a voice in this complex problem.
She founded One Voice One Vision (later morphing into the Community Resource Alliance [CRA]) to help those released from county jail with addiction issues meet their legal and personal needs. Unfortunately, just as this organization got started in 2018, her health began to deteriorate. Having survived stage 4 cancer in her head and the associated radiation in 1999, the long-term effects began to express their awful toll in 2018. The physical degradations over the last five years resulted in two major and two minor surgeries. Despite these surgeries, the radiation effects continued to severely limit her involvement and her ability to help others directly. She never lost her interest or desire, but life was getting increasingly difficult physically. But just this year, she was able to visit CRA. Her fire was as alive as ever, and it hurt so much that she could not help.
As her physical limitations took more from her, it was inevitable that she felt an increasing isolation creep in. What is amazing is that she did not blame or complain but just understood this was a new part of her experience of life—and she was going to make the best of it she could.
Despite the many physical degradations that she dealt with not just daily but moment-to-moment, she never complained, never blamed, never felt sorry for herself, was infinitely patient with what life brought her, and always, always was genuinely happy when seeing a new or old friend, or for that matter, someone she didn’t even know. She always smiled at everyone she saw. One of her traits in the last several years, if not before but perhaps more evident as her ability to speak struggled, she would say to whomever it was that was helping her, e.g., a salesperson, a transporter in the hospital, a checkout clerk; “I hope your employer knows how lucky they are to have you as an employee. They are lucky to have you here. You do a good job.” As for herself, in the last year, she only had one functioning arm and hand, but she would patiently wiggle on one sock for as long as it took and then start on the second sock. She was precious in her independence.
She was truly a remarkable person who loved people, loved her life, gave all of herself to her family, and celebrated the best in everyone. We will miss her beyond all limits and forever in the hearts and minds of those of us remaining.
Catherine Braun (Giles) Winnell is survived by her loving husband of 56 years, Michael; son Todd C. Winnell (Jennifer) and their two children, Emily and Isaac; daughter Catherine M. Winnell and her three children, Lake, Mykie, and Micah; son Isaac M. Winnell (Lauren), and their two children, Benjamin and Vera Jean; and daughter Elizabeth R. (Benjamin) Doorbos, and their two children, Noah and Jacob.