Sarah Waller

Sarah Frances Smith, 79, of Jacksonville, Florida, died at 5:55 AM, Saturday December 20, 2014 at Saint Vincent’s Hospital Hospice Unit, in Jacksonville Fl. She was born February 2, 1935 (Groundhog Day) in Jacksonville, Fl.

Also surviving her is her son Jerry C. Waller of Jacksonville, Fl. Two step children from a former marriage Allen Roberts and Sheila Kilgore both of Jacksonville, Fl, six Grand Children and fifteen Great-Grandchildren. Her Husband’s Bobby J. Waller, John R. Roberts and David A.Mills preceded her in death. She loved to cook, travel, reading, crafts, working in her yard and collecting Twetty Bird ornaments. She was retired from Independent Life Insurance Company and a member of Ft. Caroline Baptist Church. When someone you Love dies and you’re not expecting it, you don’t lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her, or you can be full of love you shared. You can turn you back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. Just when the day comes—when there’s a particular missing part the overwhelms you with the feeling that she’s gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part. You can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn you back. Or you can do what she’d want: smile, open your eyes and love and go on. Visitation is from 6 PM until 8 PM on Friday, December 26, 2014 at the Hardage-Giddens Town and Country Funeral Home on Normandy Blvd. The funeral service will follow at 10:00 AM on Saturday, December 27, 2014. The Reverend John Shultz of Fort Caroline Baptist Church-Jacksonville Fl and Reverend AJ Trosclair of Bethany Baptist Church-Oakdale, Louisiana will be officiating. The burial will be at Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery.