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RIP Sharon Toth, Extraordinary Friend of L’Arche

   

In Loving Memory of Sharon Toth

8/30/42 – 6/24/22

With great sadness, we announce the passing of Sharon Toth.  Shar died early Friday morning, June 24, surrounded by love on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Sharon leaves a legacy of service, generosity, joy, and tender yet enthusiastic love.  In our grief, we take consolation in knowing she is fully embraced by our loving and merciful God.

Shar – as she was affectionately known by her friends and family – was the embodiment of vibrancy, selflessness, and love.  She spent the last 33 years as a daily life member of L’Arche Jacksonville as the Assistant Director, Community Coordinator, Live-in Assistant, Development Director, Formation Director, House Coordinator, Accompanier, and most currently on the Board of Directors. She even met her husband Ron at L’Arche when they both served as assistants in Sunflower House!

Sharon’s 3 daughters, Dana, Heather and Shelley, and her husband Ron were with her in her final days, and along her side when she died peacefully at the McGraw Hospice Center.

Shar will be missed fervently!  Family and friends shared in the celebration of Sharon’s life: a Funeral Mass with the cremains of Sharon Toth was held at Christ the King Catholic Church on Monday, July 4. Celebrant was L’Arche Jacksonville Chaplain and friend, Rev. Tom Poth, SMM. A standing room only reception followed at the L’Arche Blanchart Community Center.

To honor Shar’s request, memorial contributions may be made to: L’Arche Jacksonville,
700 Arlington Rd. N, Jacksonville, Fl 32211.
Gifts may also be made ONLINE.

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There was Shar.

A Loving Tribute by her friend Kate Norton

The annual L’Arche “Living Nativity” was over, the performers and audience gone – and there was Shar.

Quietly working in the back of the church. Hanging up shepherd robes, stowing way the wise men gifts, packing up the tinseled star.

Tall and beautiful, Shar strode as graceful as a heron through our community of people with and without developmental disabilities, accompanying each of us with a serene, compassionate presence and authentic humility.
And everywhere you looked for more than 30 years, there was Shar. Cooking dinner with our core members, working in the office, counseling assistants, advising our Board, listening and leading in equal measure.

Shar’s hand was warm as she held yours in countless music circles. Her head tilted just so when she smiled at you, a smile that began in her gentle eyes and radiated outward.

Shar’s faith was a heartbeat that made her life a prayer, an unceasing hymn of love, lifting up her husband, family and friends.

Now she has joined her Beloved Christ and entered the mystery we all wonder about —and even as we grieve, we see her still. We remember every kindness, every tender word and hear her laughter, a geyser of happiness that would nearly bend her backward.
Anne Lamott says that “Joy is always a surprise and often a decision.” Shar decided joy would be her life’s work and there she was, every day making it so.

There was Shar. There she will always be.

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