They gathered together to say goodbye.

To share memories. To offer comfort and support, and to grieve among family and friends.

But mostly they braved the wind and rain of a cold, gray Sunday afternoon in order to celebrate the life of a friend who’s departure from this world was so sudden, unexpected and violent that it remains difficult for many to comprehend.

“She was just such a wonderful person, always smiling and always something nice to say,” Kira Sable recalls of Sharon Hammel, who was slain at her Friday Harbor home sometime in the midnight hours of April 3. “This day needed to happen. It gives some closure or at least some sense of relief.”

Poems were read, psalms were recited and a volley of flowers were tossed into the surf of South Beach as about 100 or so of Hammel’s friends, companions and co-workers paid tribute to life of the 49-year-old former town parks’ employee, who’s 15-year-old son stands accused in San Juan County Juvenile Court of the murder of his mother and of setting fire to the family’s Park Street home to cover up the alleged crime.

According to authorities, Hammel died of multiple stab wounds to the chest and neck, or possibly a fatal blow to the head. Her home was set ablaze on the night she died.

Born in New York and raised in Connecticut, Hammel, a single mother, landed on San Juan Island about 10 years along with a 5-year-old son.

In the years before that, she gravitated first to Florida as an adult and then to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, where friends say she first developed what would become a deep affection for the island way of life.

After enduring several hurricanes, she returned to the states and eventually landed in the Seattle area. From there, a visit to scenic San Juan Island would be the inspiration her next move.

Friends say that Hammel’s lifestyle was perfectly suited for the pace of the San Juans. Of all her accomplishments, they say the birth of her son proved her greatest joy. He remains in a Clallam County juvenile detention center awaiting a July 12 date in court.

Darrol Scheffer recalls being struck by Hammel’s enthusiasm and confidence while undertaking an inspection of the Park Street home that Hammel intended to buy.

“We really only met for that three hours, but there was something about her, you could tell,” Scheffer said. “I told her, ‘it’s going to take a lot of work’; and she said ‘that’s okay’, I’ve got a lot of friends and a lot of support’. And she did.”

An accomplished cook and master gardner, Hammel worked for several years at the garden center of Browne’s Home Center before joining the Town of Friday’s parks department. She rose through the ranks of parks department to become lead caretaker during a seven-year tenure with the town.

In that role, she became one of the town’s more visible employees, as her duties included upkeep of its parks, lawns and green spaces, and the annual set up and maintenance of the hanging flower baskets that adorn various streets lights and utility poles throughout the town.

Town Administrator King Fitch said in an earlier interview that Hammel, in large part because of her visibility, “In some ways she was the face of the town.”