"Grieving is a weird thing."
For nearly 40 years, the chimes on Harryette Williams’ front door tinkled with the comings and goings of her piano students. And for almost that long, Williams led choirs across Tampa Bay, building a loyal group of singers who followed her from church to church.
The chimes came down from her Largo home in 2019 after a fall and move to a rehab facility. In 2020, just before the pandemic, Williams moved to California to be close to her eldest daughter. On Aug. 13 of that year, she died of Lewy Body Dementia at 84.
Then, something happened that so many families and communities experienced when someone died during the pandemic — nothing. Instead of meetings with a funeral director, the push to get people into town in time and the waves of casseroles and sandwich platters from neighbors, Williams’ family had to wait.
“We thought, well, we’ll wait till spring,” said Williams’ youngest daughter, Bet Williams, who lives in New York City, “and then something always came up.”
Finally, more than two years after Williams’ death, her family and friends plan to gather next weekend in Largo to remember her.
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