Chrissy Adams' life celebrated at her funeral

Solicitor Chrissy Adams was celebrated Friday at her funeral at the Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Greenville.

It was not a service, nor a ceremony, said Father Tom Pistolis.

"It's a sacrifice," he said.

In the Orthodox tradition, death is a time to charge the living with living out God's will to bring others to Christ, Pistolis said.

Adams, 49, died Tuesday night of complications from Hodgkin lymphoma. She was diagnosed with the cancer in  which she was diagnosed with in October 2003. She fought through remissions, returns of the disease, stem cell treatments and infections.

Adams' death could not be explained by anyone short of God, Pistolis said Friday.

"The lady you weep and say goodbye to today, she was one of the good ones," he said.

Birds flying past the windows of the downtown cathedral cast fleeting shadows on the hundreds who packed the church.

He waved a censer, or incense burner, and left a small cloud of smoke that caught rays of the sun pouring through the windows toward Adams' body as she lay in repose.

In the Orthodox tradition, Pistolis said, there were simple prayers that have been said for thousands of years.

"May your memory be eternal," he prayed several times Friday.

So long as people recall Adams' name and her life as a believer and faithful member of the church, a part of her remains alive and eternal, he said.

Pistolis charged everyone in the room, but especially her family and her young children, 14-year-old Gregory and 9-year-old James, with continuing her memory and her deeds.

She was a supporter of the Collins Children's Home, Foothills Alliance, Safe Harbor and the American Red Cross.

Adams also put criminals behind bars and brought comfort to victims of crime in her 12 years as solicitor and 10 years before that as a prosecutor in Charleston, Greenville and Oconee counties.

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Scores of attorneys and law enforcement officers came to the funeral and wake, leaving tears and sharing hugs with Adams' husband, Eddie, their children and her mother, Helen Theos.

U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a Republican from the Upstate and former solicitor in Spartanburg, was among those who came to show their respect.

He said he always enjoyed working with Adams while they were solicitors together and that she was a strong leader.

"She was smart and sweet and tough," he said. "We'll miss her."

She will be buried Saturday beside her father, Gregory Theos, in at Live Oak Memorial Gardens in Charleston, the city where she was raised.

Pistolis said the mark of a good life will be for people to speak fondly of Adams, to take her inspiration and to run with it.

"May her memory be eternal," he said.

Follow Mike Ellis on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM