Cate Green
Cate was born April 9, 1961 to Clair and Howard Mark. She was their third daughter. Clair's father was a circuit preacher for many years going from town to town in southern Ohio preaching God's message to all. Howard came to know Jesus through his teachings and Clair's insistence. Cate invited Christ to be her Lord and Master during the 1967 Easter morning service at Lucasville Missionary Baptist Church. Her grandfather was preaching the message that day and he would later baptize her in a nearby creek one week later. Having Jesus so close is the only thing that got the family through hard times as a result of the recessed economy most of the U. S. was experiencing during the 1960's.
Late in 1959, Howard had slipped on ice during his daily walk to work. He fell, breaking his hip. This injury would confine him to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. He and his father unfortunately shared a genetic bone condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, a brittle bone disease. He had had at least 30 fractures before he fell on the ice. He lost his job with Vulcan Last, a shoe manufacture, where he had worked for over 15 years. They claimed he had to stand to do his job. He had laid back a modest sum of money that the family lived on as Clair began searching for employment. She found work doing the only marketable trade she knew: sewing. She worked for a while at a glove factory, but was soon laid off. She then found a job at a shoe factory. The family was forced to move from Portsmouth to Lucasville near Clair's father because rent was cheaper in the country.
Cate and her sisters enjoyed their new home in the country. It was green and quiet. Cate spent much time talking to Jesus and playing with the farm animals. Judy and Lois, Cate's elder sisters, loved their new schools and made many new friends.
Cate was an active little girl and frequently did things that got her in trouble. She was particularly attracted to stairs and monkey bars. When she was three, she climbed a large wardrobe and fell, breaking her collar bone. At this point, Howard didn't suspect there was a problem with Cate's bones, since he had been told that osteogenesis imperfecta was carried on the Y chromosome, meaning only boys could inherit it. When Cate was trampled by the neighbor's pony and broke her left leg and later, broke her arm playing in the park, he still didn't suspects anything. It wasn't until her leg broke again, under unusual circumstances, that he began to wonder.
Clair worked nearly 3 years for the shore factory before they, too, laid her off. After exhausting every possibility of employment in and around Portsmouth, the family was forced to move north to London, OH. Judy and Lois were both teenagers at this time and the move was especially hard for them. Judy was very upset to leave her friends at Valley High School, but Cate had just completed Kindergarten, so the move was an adventure for her. Clair and Howard hated to uproot the kids, but in order to live, Clair had to have a job, so northward they went. After that time, there was much hostility in the household. The fighting upset Cate, so much of her time was spent in solitude talking to God.
After being laid off from an awning factory, Clair finally found employment with a plastics company called H. O. Canfield, where she would stay for the next few years.
While stepping off the school bus one morning, Cate broke her left leg yet again. Clair decided to take her to Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH to find out whether or not she had inherited the Mark bone condition. It didn't take long for a diagnosis. Yes, she did indeed have the bone problem. For the next four years, Cate would think of Children's Hospital as her second home she was there so much, especially when she broke her right hip. She was in traction for several weeks and the doctors did much research at that time that would help children in the future who suffered with osteogenesis imperfecta. Unfortunately, Cate's hip refused to heal. After taking her out of traction and trying a body cast, the doctor's realized that gangrene had set in. Most of the doctor's on her case wanted to amputate, but one Dr. Iring didn't agree. He wanted to try applying a steel plate to the bone. This hadn't been done to a child before and the results were unpredictable. But Dr. Iring won the debate and scheduled Cate for surgery.
Cate had overheard the doctor's talking and knew full well what might happen if the surgery wasn't successful. She cried out to her Lord, asking for healing. Christ met her there in her bed and completely healed her of the bone problem. She went to surgery as planned and it was a great success. Within days of mounting the plate to the bone, it had begun to mend.
Cate had one more fracture after her experience in her hospital room. She thinks of it as a test of faith. Would she still believe she was healed? She did and she was. That would be her last broken bone. To date, she has not had another fracture and is still as active as she was when she was a child, almost! She resists the urge to hang from monkey bars these days!