Beth Catlin

Elizabeth "Beth" Catlin (born September 22, 1958

Personal life Beth Catlin was born on September 22, 1958, to Don and Barb Catlin. She lived with her parents in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. According to Reader's Digest, Catlin is "mentally and emotionally challenged".

Birthday cards In 1972, Catlin started sending birthday cards to people she has met. She sends cards to her family and friends, as well as neighbors and people at church. She asks people for their name, address, and birthdate, and then catalogs the information in her head. The cards she sends have never been returned due to a wrong address, and the spellings and birthdates have never been in error. She funds the card-sending with her job at the S. Wilson Pollock Center for Industrial Training. The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Ronnie Polaneczky wrote in 2019, "Beth's obsession with digits is similar to the kind so unforgettably personified by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man. While her gift is not an uncommon one among 'number' savants such as herself, I find it immensely moving that it manifests itself in such a thoughtful way."