I met Patty at Spalding when she worked in Admissions & I was in Advising. We became friends. Later I took a job w/Admissions. She eventually became my fantastic boss as well. 

We often went to lunch together & she always shared what was happening with Karen & Brian; I felt like I knew them! They were the light of her life. 

Besides her fierce love for her children, she loved animals (she enjoyed buying toys for Karen’s dogs), her friends & colleagues & her work. She cared for her mother for several years. 

She longed to move to Colorado to be near Karen & hoped Brian would eventually fly out of a hub there. Her move wasn’t the way she had planned but I’m sure she was happy to have Karen nearby. 

She was fun, independent & a dear friend. I miss her very much.

I met Patty totally by accident - I called a former colleague, Lynn Walker and begged her to return to Spalding to work in Admissions with me again! Lynn sweetly declined and told me I really needed to contact her friend, Patty Goodman. What a great day that was, for me and for Spalding's students. Karen and Brian, I only knew her after you were flying the nest so as moms, we shared so many stories. I heard about Karen's days playing in FC marching band and Brian's college days at ISU. I watched Thunder over Louisville with her as she explained every plane (from a mom of a flyer's point of view) and we both laughed a LOT when I saw her cutting the back grass on that big tractor. And that was after her first stroke! We shared many memories including walking for miles through Washington, DC to attend President Obama's first inauguration with a million new "friends". She was fearless, independent and loved you both fiercely. She was so proud to be called Mama Bear and while she told me so much about you, she never talked about the stories of her early adventures, so thanks for sharing them. On her 60th birthday, she asked me to go zip-lining in the Mega Cavern and of course I laughed and said, "no way" and of course she went anyway. What a gal - I miss her and so glad our paths crossed in this lifetime. She loved her work at Spalding and her students, but you were her greatest legacy. Please make sure your little ones remember her stories.