Funeral Homily for Phyllis Posey-The Rev Melanie Lemburg

The Very Rev. Melanie Lemburg

Funeral Homily_Phyllis Posey

June 30, 2025

 

        Phyllis Posey was a nurse all the time, on or off the clock.  She could get anything done.  She appreciated efficiency.  She was frugal, so much so that she would never throw anything away, even after it was expired. And she was brutally practical.  Her gifts always had a purpose: socks, flashlights, blankets.  She was endearingly persnickety.  Her husband Frank would refer to her as “a little, sawed-off Yankee woman” because she was such a spitfire.  And she embraced this designation with humor; when she’d call her friend Beth Wall she’d start the call saying, “This is your Yankee friend.” 

        Beth shared with me how one time her husband was having chest pain, and he refused to go to the hospital, so she called Phyllis.  Phyllis said, “Let me talk to him.  I’ll either save a life or lose a friend.” (You can hear her saying it, can’t you?!)  When it was all said and done, Beth’s husband went to the hospital thanks to Phyllis. 

        She was brilliant.  She and Frank would play Scrabble, and he’d always have a dictionary on hand because he didn’t believe her words were actual words.  But they were.  And she had a slow, smart sense of humor.  She’d make a joke with that sly sense of humor, and then she’d give you a look to see if you got the joke with her mysterious, “Cheshire Cat” smile.  She was never on time.  Her friends would go pick her up, and she’d say, “I’ll almost ready” and she wouldn’t even be dressed yet! 

        She was determined and tenacious.  One of her super-powers was that she could get any stain out of laundry.  Don’t you know, those stains never stood a chance!

        She loved the beach and all things pertaining to the water— sea shells, boat rides, crabbing….cocktails on the dock.  For many years, she and Frank would go to Marco Island every February.  She loved her cats.  She loved being a nurse.  And she loved her family: her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren.  She was so proud of y’all, and what a gift it is for you to all be here together today and in the ways that y’all honor her through your service here in her funeral!  She loved this church and her friends here.  She dedicated so many faithful years of prayer and service here, and she put the fear of God into myself and a number of the rectors of St. Thomas as she served as the long-time chair of the altar guild!  Now, I can’t speak for the other rectors, but I knew better than to cross Phyllis. She just had that air about her, of brooking no nonsense, even from her priest.  And yet, she was always gracious and a calm, steady presence to me in that important role.  She had a quiet faithfulness about her here at St. Thomas and this was evidenced especially in her life of service and prayer as a member of the Order of the Daughters of the King here. 

        She was quite a woman!  Oh, how we will miss her.  Today we gather to give thanks for Phillis and for all the ways that she influenced and shaped and cared for us.  We offer thanks for the uncounted numbers of people and animals helped by her in her healing ministry as a nurse, and we are grateful for her faithfulness and service to God through this church.  And we also mourn the loss of this remarkable woman from our midst.  We gather today to remember that through Jesus’s death and resurrection, God has proven once and for all that God’s love is stronger than absolutely everything; even death.  And we remember that death is not the end, but a change; that Jesus goes before us through death into the resurrection life where Phyllis and all of us are invited and encouraged to follow.  And we give thanks that the reconciling work begun in this life will continue into the next, because nothing is ever truly lost in the Kingdom of God. 

        So today, even as we mourn the loss of Phyllis in this life among us, we give thanks for all the (endearingly persnickety) ways she loved us, and we trust in the hope of our faith, in Phyllis’ faith, that we will all be reunited once again in God’s eternal life.