Cathy Brennan Becomes U.S. Citizen, Continues to Serve Baptist Patients and Team Members
Catalina “Cathy” Brennan, an inventory technician with Baptist Central Service Supply, became an official U.S. Citizen on Aug. 27, 2024.
In honor of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day on Sept. 17, we want to share more about Cathy’s journey and how honored she is to be an American and to serve at Baptist.
We asked Cathy to share about her experiences becoming a citizen and her journey to being at Baptist Health Care.
Cathy grew up in the Philippines, specifically in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija. She comes from a large family and is the oldest sibling of nine children. Because of her large family, Cathy was pulled out of education at an early age, helped raise her brothers and sisters and worked to earn money.
She later raised her own family and now has four adult children ages 25, 23, and twins age 21.
More than a decade ago, an American cousin named Teresita, living and working in Pensacola, connected with Cathy in the Philippines. Teresita babysat Cathy when she was just 2 years old and was from the same village. Teresita was working at NAS Pensacola at the time. As Cathy and Teresita reacquainted, Cathy jokingly asked if she had American friends she could talk to. Teresita introduced her to Dave Brennan in 2010. Dave worked at NAS at that time and also worked for Baptist at Gulf Breeze Hospital.
Cathy and Dave began chatting through Facebook. Neither of them was looking for a relationship, but they thought having an international friend would be fun. That friendship quickly blossomed into three—and four-hour conversations each night. They had no issues typing to each other even with a bit of a language barrier. Cathy did know and understand some English though.
After a few months, Dave began to share more about the serious nature of his relationship with Cathy with his coworkers at Gulf Breeze. Two of his friends, Dawn and Roselle, were Filipino and traveling to the Philippines. Dave asked if they would consider meeting Cathy while visiting Manila. They agreed. That meeting went well – Dawn and Roselle learned more about Cathy and could relay to her what Dave was like and vice versa. Having those mutual acquaintances gave them each more courage to keep pursuing the relationship.
Nine months after first chatting with Cathy, Dave flew to the Philippines in October 2011 with the intent to meet her for the first time and marry her. They spent three weeks together before they married and completed paperwork for Cathy to return to the U.S. with Dave. They settled into their home in Pensacola.
Cathy first worked in a local hotel before getting a job working in environmental services (EVS) at Baptist in November of 2013. While working in EVS, Cathy was routinely praised for her strong work ethic. In 2020, she won the Cintas C.A.P.E. Award, which stands for Cleaning to Advance the Patient Experience. This national program recognizes environmental services professionals in health care as superheroes. Cathy was nominated by her peers to receive this award and was chosen from 800 nominations from across the U.S. The program awarded $2,500 to Cathy as a winner and also gave a $2,500 donation to the facility where the winner works. So those funds went to The Baptist Health Care Foundation to help other team members.
After several years of working in EVS, Cathy wanted to further her career. She applied for a position with Central Service Supply and was hired as an inventory technician. Cathy is grateful to Jason Stokes and Chris Ray for taking a chance on her.
In her role, she receives, stores and distributes supplies to departments throughout Baptist. She enjoys helping others and being part of a team. She takes her job seriously and wants everyone to feel supported and helped. Even if she doesn’t have the supplies people ask for, she offers research and tries to help them find it from another source.
Cathy wanted to be a more official U.S. citizen so she could have more rights to vote and travel to and from the Philippines. She and Dave have had concerns in the past about her green card expiring. Earlier this year, Cathy began the process of naturalization.
She applied online, paid the fee and filled out a form to receive the study guide (book and CD). She never received them in the mail, so she and Dave looked up the 100 questions and answers on their own. They studied and practiced for six months before Cathy took the exam on Aug. 27, 2024, in Montgomery, Alabama, at the office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Cathy was interviewed and completed a written exam. She made a perfect score and took the citizen oath of office that same day. She and Dave had never been so proud and honored.
Dave contacted Baptist to share his love and pride for his wife. We were glad to oblige him.
Cathy’s advice to others for the test and in life are the following:
“Study hard and don’t panic because the process is not as hard as you may think.”
“Give to others without expecting anything in return and be of service.”
Congratulations, Cathy! We are honored to have you at Baptist and thank you for sharing your story with us.
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