Catherine Hemler

Cathy lived her faith: active in Cursillo, a Eucharistic Minister, spent 20 years passing on her faith through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) and she worked as the church secretary for St. Joseph’s for a few years. Of course, her focus was young people: Cathy was a high school CCD teacher, eventually morphing the program into an active youth group and she spent many years volunteering with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Her hands were never at rest. Every family member received a quilt or 10 and every baby born at Good Counsel Home in Riverside knew Cathy’s warmth through her creations. She passed her knowledge onto the next generation teaching her grandkids and the Girl Scouts the art. She was an avid miniaturist with her husband building many a doll house of all different scales and Cathy doing the decorating. If she was outside, she’d either have her hands in the soil working with her flowers or tending to her birdhouses and hummingbirds. Cathy was never happier than experiencing some fine cuisine with a glass of Chardonnay, was always searching for some new recipe and had taken Bacio cooking classes. Retirement found her doing a little travelling with cruises and trips all over the world. In her earlier years she worked as a customer service representative for Sears, but she found her real calling late in life: Cathy was a grandmother for the ages, never more apparent than on the holidays when Mom-mom had free reign to spoil the grands. If her T.V was on she’d be checking out some Nascar (Martin Truex Jr.), Dancing with the Stars and Murder She Wrote and she loved the sounds of the sixties (Sixties on Six, Beach Boys).
The pretty Immaculata girl would meet a handsome St. Joseph’s boy named Richard at a dorm picnic. Cathy and Dick would share a 54-year marriage blessed by three children, David (Dana), Jennifer (Rich) Sosdorf, and Allison (Shawn) Kimball; and later by grandchildren, Matthew, Katelyn, Travis, Emma, Lance and Logan. She is survived by her brother, Keith (Kris) Clayton and her mother, Helen Clayton. She was pre-deceased by her father, Lloyd Clayton.
Come celebrate 76 great years Friday, July 12, 10-11 a.m. at Jesus the Good Shepherd Parish, St. Joseph Church, Beverly where Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Interment to follow at Brigadier General William C. Doyle Cemetery, Wrightstown. In lieu of flowers donations to American Cancer Society (cancer.org) will be appreciated.