Funeral Homily for Saralyn Porter

Funeral Homily_Saralyn Porter

June 3, 2024

 

        Saralyn Porter was someone who left her mark on this world.  She was a gifted artist whose works will live on long after her as well as a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and a faithful friend.  Her friends describe her as being kind and loyal as well as having a gift for connecting people.  They also talked about how she remained down-to-earth, even after her multiple degrees and all her success in the art world. 

        She loved the beach, loving to ride her bike and take long walks with her family and exploring Tybee, and she had an artist’s eye for detail which allowed her to collect shark’s teeth.  She had a passion for helping others, whether it was through rescuing stray dogs or helping people, Saralyn had the heart of a helper. 

        Saralyn had a really good sense of herself; she was comfortable in her own skin.  Jimmy shared that she loved to paint nude self-portraits, and she had so many he wasn’t sure what to do with them all when he started going through some of her things. 

        For over a decade, the person who was Saralyn Porter has been slowly unraveled by the horrible disease of Alzheimer’s.  You who love her have watched as she became less and less herself.  It has been a difficult and grievous road for such a lovely soul and for all who love her. And it’s important to acknowledge the care and support she received over the course of her illness—through Jimmy’s dedication to taking care of her and with the help of her caregivers:  Fran, Lois, Sabrina, Angela, and Deborah.

        So today, we gather to mourn Saralyn’s long, slow, difficult death.  We mourn that her beautiful presence is no longer with us in this life.  And we gather to remember the hope of our faith, the hope of Saralyn’s faith:  that death is not the end, but a change; that even though all seems dark and lost on Good Friday, that joy will come again on Easter Sunday; that through Jesus’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, God has proven once and for all that God’s love is stronger than absolutely anything. That love is stronger than all the forces that diminish us, even death.

        So we gather today to give thanks that Saralyn is no longer suffering, that she is healed and fully whole and at home with the God who created her and loves her.  We give thanks for all the ways that she taught us about what it means to live a beautiful life, and we remember the hope of our faith that we will be reunited with her once again, all together in the dwelling place of God.