Milton, NH

Catherine Lee (Derdock) Speidel, 61, of Milton, N.H., went home to our heavenly Father on Sunday, December 13, 2020, after a period of declining health. Her final days were spent at her home with her children and family.

She was born April 29, 1959 in Washington, D.C., the daughter of the late James and Theresa (Lee) Derdock. She grew up and attended schools in Pittsburg, PA. She enlisted in the Air Force there and served as a Tactical Aircraft Maintenance Specialist at Myrtle Beach AFB, SC before leaving to have the first of her children. In her subsequent time of life she became a trained volunteer for VICTIMS INC of Rochester, NH, and her capacity there to provide immediate services to victims of trauma meant a great deal to her. Later in life she fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a nurse. She was a college graduate in her fifties, working her way from an LNA to an LPN at the Edgewood Centre in Portsmouth, NH.

Cathy was driven by her natural, genuine desire to help others. She loved to take on a mother role in the lives of her children's friends, and of her own friends also. She was a surrogate mother for one of her dearest friends and gave her twin boys, in whose love she was able to share. The friendships she forged later in life were built on her ability to be there for those she loved in their times of great need. She will be deeply missed by many whose lives she affected deeply. She has already been claimed, as a guardian angel.

She leaves her husband of nineteen years, Mal; her daughter Crystal (Frankie) Bairos of Leominster, MA; her daughter Tammy Frankie of Milton, NH; her son Jonathan Kartes and his fiancee Joanna Walsh of Penacook, NH; her beloved grandchildren Acacia and Anthony Bairos of Leominster, MA; her sister Antoinette Derdock of Pittsburg, PA; her brother James Derdock of Destin, FL, and several beloved nieces and nephews throughout the Pittsburg area.

Cathy was predeceased by her sister, Grace Cuccaro, and her husband, Steven Cuccaro, of Monroeville, PA. She was also predeceased by her former husband, Kenneth Kartes.

The family would like to extend their special gratitude to the professional and caring doctors and nurses of Wentworth Douglass Hospital in Dover, NH, the VA outpatient clinic in Somersworth, NH and Cornerstone VNA Hospice.

Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at her church, St. Katharine Drexel in Alton, NH, on Saturday May 1, 2021 at 11am, family and friends are welcome.  Anyone wishing to make a donation in her name may please direct it to the Triangle Club, 120 Broadway, Dover, NH 03820.