It's 5 a.m. at a Princeton Fitness Center – What Do You Say to the Early Arrivals?

Princeton, NJ — I have an unusual mental health insurance policy. Unaffiliated with any insurance company, my independent mental health plan is called Cathy. Cathy's services are free, well sort of, in that the coverage falls under the umbrella of my other mental and physical health expenses known as gym membership.

Cathy is the morning front desk membership services representative at my gym — Princeton Fitness and Wellness. She greets me and dozens of others every morning from 5 to 9 a.m. and provides a service as an angst catcher, services akin to that of a bartender. Her conversations with me are often sobering and therapeutic.

As I limp my way into the gym before sunrise, Cathy is there to listen to my profound assessment of the weather (as if she were unaware of the weather), along with a recitation about happy milestones with photos and unhappy milestones without photos.

But the most popular and generally comical topic of conversation describes annoying health problems, concerning the back, hips, knees, teeth, eyes, feet, shoulders, and even on occasion elbows. These are issues that I avoid discussing with family, friends, and often even with doctors, because the ailments sound so old-lady whiny.

Cathy never judges the quality of my complaints. She shares a few of her own annoying health issues, thus easing my self-consciousness about dumping complaints on her. She then figuratively pushes me onto a piece of equipment that helps me get moving every morning.

I became curious about what it takes to do Cathy's job, when she was honored last month as "employee of the month." The honor was marked by her picture in a frame on the counter at the front of the reception area — right next to her.

Cathleen Heffernan-Blasch admits that her professional role is somewhat of an oxymoron. She is known and greeted by dozens of people daily five days per week — perhaps as many as 100,000 member check-ins over the course of the 19 years she has worked in the job.

For some members (like Pam), she serves that vital angst-catching mental health role, but for many others she is invisible. She is the lady who has to listen to the irritating machine beep and its robotic "thank you" that comes when members "swipe in." Cathy claims she hears that beep in her sleep.

I was struck by one member who checked in before me several weeks ago and asked Cathy who was the person being honored as employee of the month, as revealed by Cathy's apparently unrecognizable picture on the counter.

"Some people want to talk, others not so much. A few never make eye contact. Honestly, however, the reason why I am still on the job after nearly two decades is that I really enjoy connecting with the members. Early in the morning, people seem to appreciate me just being there, smiling, remembering their names, and keeping track of the little details about their lives," says Cathy.

"But it is a fact that even the people who want to talk to me only know me as Cathy. No one knows my last name — until this article is published," says Cathy.

Cathy received her employee of the month recognition for being far more than the early morning "hostess with the mostess." Even though the trainers are on site, the managers do not get to work until 9 a.m., so Cathy ends up being the de facto early morning site manager. She deals with a variety of facility operational issues, such as the lights, temperature, music volume, newspaper deliveries, large screen television content (sports vs. news, MSNow vs. Fox), membership questions, public safety issues such as stopping non-members from coming in to just use the bathroom. She also responds to complaints about issues over which she has no control (ice, snow, flooding) and machines that are having a bad day.

The biggest challenge of her career at the gym was COVID, which closed the facility for six months from March to September of 2020. The gym had to deal with a fluctuating membership situation, deactivating and then reactivating memberships, in addition to the extraordinary sanitizing protocols.

"But members seemed to appreciate what we were implementing. . . In spite of all the challenges, this customer service job is the most rewarding of all the people-oriented jobs I have had over the years," says Cathy.

Raised in a suburb of Albany, New York, Cathy, who now lives in Rocky Hill with her husband, Mark, focused her education and subsequently her various jobs on her desire to help people. With an associate's degree in human resources, she went on to get a degree in medical technology from the College of Staten Island, a senior college within the City University of New York. Her jobs have included being an au pair in Manhattan, working for a local veterinarian, and working for Mercer Medical Center (before its merger with Capital Health).

One of the great aspects of her current job, as opposed to other jobs she has held, is the freedom after 9 a.m.

"I wake up at 3 or 3:30 a.m., get dressed, feed the (two) cats, do word games on the computer, have my tea and a light breakfast -- and then I am ready to get to work at 4:45 a.m. or earlier," she says.

But what happens to Cathy after 9 a.m.? She often becomes a customer of the gym, tends to various medical appointments for her cats and herself, and then embraces her non-paying job -- crocheting, an activity that requires zero interaction with humans. Even though I have had hundreds of conversations with Cathy over the course of a decade, I never knew about this creative passion.

She interacts with people only when she has a finished work of art (scarves, sweaters, blankets, ornaments, hats, all sorts of baby items) that she gives (never sells) to countless relatives and friends. She has an entire room in her home dedicated to her hobby.

"I definitely inherited this passion from my grandmother, aunt, and mother, who also were very talented as knitters and crocheters," says Cathy.

She suggests that perhaps a great way for the gym to foster close ties with members and employees would be to exhibit the arts and crafts created by anyone associated with the gym. I probably would not qualify as a talented artist – although I do spin a good yarn about weird pains.

As my imaginary mental health insurer, Cathy advises me to pursue knitting or crocheting. "Pick one," she tells me. "It clears your mind and diverts your attention to the task at hand," rather than to the achy hand, or foot, or back, or knee, or

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