One of Erin’s friends aptly called her “a force of nature.”
On Feb. 27, 2023, while being treated in a San Diego emergency room for a medical issue, Erin suffered a cardiac arrest. Although resuscitated, she sustained a significant brain injury. Following treatment at a rehabilitation center, Erin returned to Maine and received care in her parents’ home. She fought with grit to live, but, ultimately, her injury just proved too great, and she passed away on Nov. 19, 2023.
Predeceased by her grandparents, Erin leaves behind her parents, Leslie and Emory Rounds of Arundel; her siblings: Emory and his wife Cagney Rounds of Olympia, Washington, Kate and her husband Brain Avery of East Hampton, Connecticut, Christopher Rounds of Arundel, and Megan and her husband Robert Vrooman of Raymond, New Hampshire, as well as her godparents, Douglas McDonough and Beverly Lambert of Andover, Connecticut, and aunts, uncles, cousins and fast friends from all over the country.
Erin Elizabeth Rounds was born July 18, 1991, in Christiana, Delaware, the fourth of five children. Belonging to a military family, she grew up in a variety of places, leaving best friends in each. She graduated from Kennebunk High School with a substantial collection of college credits, and moved onto the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her four years there were a magical time in her life. It was a place where she met many of the friends who would later relocate, as she did, to San Diego.
After college, she attended the University of Maine School of Law, where she graduated in 2017. She spent her last semester studying in San Diego, and passed the California Bar Exam, notoriously difficult, on her first try. After gaining experience at a private law firm and then a nonprofit legal aid society, Erin opened her own law firm, Tenants’ Legal Center, where she represented tenants in landlord-tenant disputes, keeping her fees low to make her services available to as many as possible.
Besides her dedication to her legal clients, Erin was actively involved in canine rescue including the three dogs she had adopted and adored. She loved to travel to exotic places, enjoyed crafting and painting, and was a fan of good anime. With her bright smile and unending enthusiasm, she lit up the lives of those who were lucky enough to have known her, and she endures in our hearts and memories.
Please join us for a celebration of her beautiful life at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 60 School St., Saco. A reception will follow in the church hall. Erin would have been so pleased if donations in her memory were made to the Animal Welfare Society of West Kennebunk, or to the animal shelter of your choice.
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