For most people lost in a deep sleep, the muffled squeak coming from down the hall wouldn’t have been enough to wake them.

Kathleen wasn’t like other people. Even in that weird place between sleep and wakefulness, Kathleen could tell that something was wrong. She bolted upright, her ears immediately focusing on the muffled squeaking sound, which to her highly-attuned hearing was nothing short of a full-out wail.

In one fluid motion, she donned her robe and slippers and darted toward the sound like a dolphin in open water. She pushed the door open and ….

"Oh, Dennis," she said, picking up one of two twin infants from a crib. "What is it now?"

Kathleen analyzed the sound of Dennis’s crying, visually scanned his movements and filtered any odor ….

Having found the cause of his distress, Kathleen contentedly changed his diaper, humming a lullaby as she did -- despite the time (2:43 a.m.) and the fact that she had to go to work in less than three hours.

Kathleen wasn’t like other people. Her husband had left her and their six children just months earlier. Rather than live in anger, she called upon a power greater than herself, and, in no time, found that she had abilities to make Superman blush with envy. She could bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never ever let her children forget she was their mom.

She used her empathic abilities to determine the difference between a simple sneeze and a sneeze that indicated an oncoming cold. She was endowed with wisdom that allowed her to solve disputes, such as whose turn it was to do the dishes.

Every morning Kathleen fed and helped her children dress. When one couldn’t get the zipper of his coat past an annoying little thread that always jammed the gears, she’d fix it with one hand while using the other to wipe clean another son’s face with a handkerchief licked with face-cleaning spit.

By day she was a mild mannered bakery cook, and later a hospital secretary. By night, she was nothing short of super-Mom. Though living on poverty wages, Kathleen found a way to send all of the kids to Catholic school. Together they prayed the rosary daily, and on Sundays the family of seven would walk two miles to church.

Eventually, being alone and raising six children will take a toll on even the most powerful. Despite all of God’s gifts, Kathleen almost daily would tire to the point of exhaustion. Soon she welcomed her aunt, who came to live with the family to help raise the children.

Although a single mother of six at the tender age of 27, and housed with a beauty that befitted her name, Kathleen devoted herself to her family and to her God, and never remarried. With the help of her aunt, she raised the five boys and one girl well. They would become a teacher, a salesman, a PhD, an artist, a small business owner, and a writer.

Kathleen, who died in 1998, wasn’t like other people. She was a mom.

The call to parenthood is among the greatest callings of them all. Perhaps the greatest. Pope Benedict thinks he has challenges? He ought to try raising teenagers.

I believe that one day, instead of only canonizing the Frances Xaviers and the Catherines of Siena, the pope will elevate to sainthood people such as Kathleen. Children in Catholic schools across America will be shown a picture of a woman in skirt, hose, high heels and curlers. She’ll be holding two infants while four other children between the ages of 3 and 7 tug on her sleeve and make faces into the camera.

"St. Kathleen, a single parent, raised six children," the caption will read. "She worked full time, could make an exceptional lemon pie, and, when she had time, enjoyed watching the O.U. ‘Sooners.’"

Next up will be Janell Gaynor of the Bronx, who reared four children in a studio apartment while her husband was off at war. Or Mabel Steenburgen of Cincinnati, who gave up her dream of becoming an Olympic bobsledder so she could serve as Team Mom for her son’s baseball team, the yet-to-win-a-game Knardville Knights.

"Dear Lord," moms the world over will one day pray, "please give me the patience of St. Janell, the noble sacrifice of St. Mabel, and St. Kathleen’s ability to get through the day. Amen."

One thing is for certain. Heaven is packed with saints, the names of whom we’ll never know. Happy Mother’s Day to all the unknown saints.