Funeral Homily for Anne Kolman

Funeral Homily_Anne Kolman

February 12, 2022

 

        “They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.”  You’d never know it to look at her, but Anne Kolman was an oak of righteousness.  When she met her future Jewish in-laws on a trip to New Jersey, they told her that everything was fine with her, “but she’d have to do something about that cute little nose!”  And yet, she had the spiritual stature of a mighty oak. 

        In the year before she died, Anne took the time to write about her life in a green spiral notebook.  Her anecdotes are full of stories of her life, how she and Ron met and the quiet evolution of their friendship into a life-long love and a 57 year long marriage.  She wrote about their travels and adventures to 49 of the 50 states and her most memorable trips.  She wrote about her love of reading, and her daughters shared that it was not uncommon for her to stay up all night so she could read an entire book in a day.  She wrote about her love of gardening and sewing, about how she loved to design and sew her own clothes, including her wedding dress and bathing suits.  (It takes a woman truly confident in her own skills to sew her own bathing suit!)  She wrote about her vocation as a nurse, caring for those who were sickest; her quiet strength was to walk with and care for people in some of the most difficult moments of their lives.  Once, when she was working at the public hospital, she had a tuberculosis patient in an iron lung.  When the power went out, she called Ron and he came and manually helped her keep the iron lung working to keep the patient alive through that long night. During her time at Memorial, she spent time as a neo-natal nurse which had her caring for so many babies born with an addition to crack cocaine.   

        She wrote about her involvement in church throughout her whole life.  She treasured her Book of Common Prayer and her bible, one given at confirmation and the other from perfect attendance at Sunday School.  Anne and her mom and daughters came to St. Thomas after her dad died, sometime in the 1960’s, and she’s been here ever since.  She modeled a quiet faithfulness for her family and all who knew her.

        And finally, Anne wrote about spending time with her family.  “In the years after settling in Savannah for life,” Anne wrote, “we enjoyed bowling leagues, swimming, crabbing, fishing, boating, traveling.  Life with family was always our blessing—playing cards, fish frys, and being together.”

        You wouldn’t have known it to look at her, but Anne Kolman was an “oak of righteousness” and her death leaves a gaping absence for all of us who knew and loved her. 

        Today we gather to give thanks for Anne, for her quiet faithfulness, for her life and the way that she cared for people.  And we also gather to remember that death is not the end, but a change.  We gather to remember that Jesus who loves us has gone before us through death into the new life of the resurrection; that through Jesus’s resurrection, God has proven, once and for all, that love is stronger than anything, even death.  And we gather to remember that even though Anne has followed Jesus on the way into her last great trip, her next great adventure, we will meet her again at God’s heavenly banquet. 

        We give thanks for this oak of righteousness, for her quiet faithfulness, for the way that she loved us and the way that she made the world a better place.  We will miss her.  And we will see her again.