Kathi was born to William and Doris Adams in Massachusetts on December 19, 1950, the second of five children (along with her sister, Connie, and her brothers, Doug, David, and Ken).
She graduated from Simmons College in Boston, where she studied psychology and enjoyed spending time at the nearby Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston is also where she met her husband, Lou Vincent, who managed to convince her both to marry him (they were married on August 11, 1973, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Gardner, Massachusetts) and to move with him to California.
The two years that they intended to spend in California turned into a lifetime, as they settled in El Cerrito, had two sons (Christopher William in 1978 and Nathaniel Eugene in 1981), and became deeply involved with the parish of St. Jerome. Kathi was extensively involved in the work of both the school and the church, and she became particularly close with the Sisters of St. Jerome.
She was exceptionally thoughtful and kind, and she had a quick and curious mind, with a sly sense of humor that she mostly reserved for those closest to her. She also had a remarkable inner strength, which helped her to overcome a variety of health issues, starting with Polio, which she contracted when she was just four years old.
She walked with a leg brace and a crutch for many years, but those barely slowed her down for much of her life. Kathi loved to travel, and she particularly cherished having been able to visit the town in France where her mother and grandmother were born (Saumur), as well as the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, St. Anne’s in Quebec, and the Cotswalds in England, among other places.
In more recent years, her physical challenges became more difficult, but she remained dedicated to her family and to her faith, focusing love and attention on her friends and family, including her grandchildren, William Gardner (9) and Ella Louise (7).
She was and is exceptionally special to us, and we miss her very, very much.
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