Sarah Lynn Tarpley Nettles

Sarah Lynn Tarpley Nettles, 38, entered into eternal life on June 17, 2021 in Jacksonville, Florida, in the care of Community Hospice. Her recent illness was the end of a 16 year struggle with an unremitting white matter disease of the brain that left her gradually more and more disabled. Yet she never complained but found beauty in each day and in every person she met. Recently she was resident at the Isle Health & Rehab of Fleming Island, FL, and there met Larry Nettles. They fell in love with each other and were married at the nursing home on May 1, 2021. They found love and friendship in each other during the Covid-year of 2020. She was born to Kent and Laura Jabbusch Tarpley on December 9, 1982 in Evanston, Illinois. She graduated from Belfast High School, Belfast Maine, and went on to graduate with honors from Santa Clara University in California, with a major in Biology and a major in Environmental Science. She took post-graduate work at Lincoln University in New Zealand, which had to be cut short because of her unusual disease. She planned to work as a field biologist someday. As a Christian she was a lifelong Episcopalian, and took Hospice volunteer training in Maine in 2012 and visited many families in hospice care. She loved nature and the outdoors and the poetry of Mary Oliver. She played cards, cribbage, soccer, tennis, and the flute. She will be remembered for her generous, loving spirit, making friends around the world as a world traveler.

She is survived by her parents, the Rev. Kent and Laura Tarpley, her brother Robert Tarpley, and his wife Jamie, with nephews Brayden, Rowan, Raleigh, and niece Zoe. She is also survived by many cousins, aunts, and uncles among the Jabbusch, Tarpley, and Lord families, and a grandmother. Sarah’s funeral service will held at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Green Cove Springs, FL, on July 2, at 11 a.m., with the Rev. Amy Slater officiating, with internment to follow in St. Mary’s Memorial garden. In lieu of flowers a donation may be made to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, PO Box 1346, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043, or your own contribution in her memory to help the environment Sarah wanted to save. Her family is thankful to God for Sarah’s life and example, and is thankful for the care she received from Isle Health & Rehabilitation, Baptist South Hospital ICU, and Community Hospice of Jacksonville.