At the age of 90 and after a ten year struggle with dementia, Mom left her earth body on the morning of November 5, 2017 and was welcomed into her eternal home in heaven. Oh, how she was ready to go home! We are grateful for the bravery, acceptance and love she left as her legacy. No doubt she is the loudest, and one of the most beautiful sopranos in heaven —sing, Mom, sing! She was an accomplished pianist and found comfort and pleasure in song when all else failed.

Sylvia was a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in Music Education. She was first employed as an elementary level music teacher and then went on to obtain a Master's Degree in Specific Learning Disabilities from the University of South Florida. A long-time resident of Brevard County, Florida, she served as a teacher in the Brevard County School System for 33 years before retirement and was known for her love, kindness and generosity. She left a positive impact on the lives of many students through the years. She continued to advocate for children after retirement, serving as a guardian ad litem in the in the Brevard County court system.

Mom met our father, Moses Harden, in school in Okeechobee, Florida. She wasn't very interested in him. He once came to her house to ask her to go to some kind of social event with him in high school and she told him to ask the girl across the street instead. However, they started dating after she went off to college. He was attending the University of Florida in Gainesville and he and his buddies would head to Tallahassee on the weekends to have fun with the girls. More than 50 years of marriage and 5 children followed as they navigated life. She was a devoted wife and mother.

Sylvia was predeceased by her parents, Wade and Gladys Snell, her brother, Sidney Lanier and her husband, Moses in 2002. She will continue to be loved and missed by her children, Michael Harden (Cindy), Jackie Callahan (Don), Dana Hankins, Mark Harden and David Harden. Loved also by her grandchildren, Israel Harden, Jean Taylor (Robert), Savannah Hankins, Kaitlyn Thomas and Nathan Harden and her great grandchildren, Blakely Harden, Baxter Harden, Taylor Pafford, Brendan Taylor, Daelyn Taylor, Bryce Mansfield and Adelita Thomas.


We are comforted with the words of holy scripture that proclaim we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself, and not by human hands. How weary we grow of our present bodies...we want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will, as it were, be swallowed up by everlasting life. This is what God has prepared for us and, as a guarantee; He has given us his Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2, 4, 5

The family will gather on, December 7th, her 91st birthday, to remember Mom. If you would like to do something in remembrance of her, please consider donating to Guardian Ad Litem program or the Leukemia Research Foundation.