Super Bowl Family Worlds Apart on Big Day

Feb. 3, 2006 — -- On Super Bowl Sunday, Mike Holmgren, the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, will be right where you'd expect him -- in Detroit on the sidelines of Ford Field. But his wife, Kathy, will not be there, and that is just fine with him.

Kathy Holmgren resumes a journey she began 35 years ago.

While her husband prepares his Seahawks for the biggest game of their lives, Kathy is on her way back to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she first volunteered as a nurse in 1970.

"I became a nurse to become a medical missionary," she said. "So right after nursing school, I decided to go to the Congo."

After a year in Africa, Kathy returned to the United States, married Mike and raised four daughters.

Last fall their daughter, Calla, a doctor, decided she was going to follow in her mother's footsteps, doing medical work in the Congo.

"I truly think that the more you've been given, the more responsible you are to give back," Calla said.

Coach Holmgren didn't realize then that the trip would keep his wife from the Super Bowl.

"It was my birthday," said Kathy, "and I'm hard to buy for, and he said, 'I want you to go and take care of Calla. I know you want to go back.'"

Even after the Seahawks won a trip to the Super Bowl, Mike insisted that she go.

"This is who she is," he said. "While at times she is 'Mike Holmgren's wife' she is also very much her own woman, and I've always loved that about her."

Said Kathy: "It's Mike's livelihood; it's his reputation. But it is entertainment, and the kinds of things we will be working with in Africa -- those are life and death issues."

Kathy and Calla are on their way and will arrive in the Congo on Saturday. They'll be working with nine other medical professionals in the town of Karawa in northern Congo for the next three weeks. The effort was sponsored by Convenant Church and organized by Northwest Medical Teams.

They won't be able to see or hear the big game, but they'll be getting a call when it's over. They are, of course, expecting good news.

ABC News' Alice Maggin filed this report for "World News Tonight."