The long line of cars filled with Julie Rowland Bowling's grieving family and friends rolled slowly, wearily along Winstead Avenue on Wednesday, passing Hurt Drive minutes before arriving at Englewood Baptist Church.
Dozens of family members filed into the church – crowded with more than 200 other mourners – for the 2 p.m. funeral.
Bowling, 45, was a friend filled with "compassionate zeal," Dr. Carleton McKita said during the service.
"Every time (since Friday) there was a pause in my day, Julie was in my mind," he said. "Julie died before it was her time."
Bowling was shot to death on Friday morning, allegedly in a plan made by her husband, Mark, and his mistress Rose Deloris Vincent, but speakers at the funeral said when the horror of Julie Bowling's death fades, the memories of good times with her will remain.
The Rev. Ruben Bachelor said he experienced Julie Bowling's kindness firsthand, when she opened the Bowling home to his family for seven weeks after the 1999 flood. Bachelor said he looks forward to embracing Bowling again one day in heaven.
"We'll see her again," he said, "and we'll never have to say goodbye anymore."
Bowling was the manager of Nash Health Care Systems' radiation oncology department from 1984 to 2006 and was vice president of Bowling Funeral Home & Crematory, which handled her funeral arrangements. She had recently stepped down as manager at the hospital to work with patients as a radiation therapist.
The department closed Wednesday in her memory to allow her coworkers to attend the funeral.
"We're all wounded healers," McKita said to Bowling's coworkers during the service. "We carry with us the spirit of Julie."
Following the 40-minute service, the family attended a private burial ceremony.
Those who attended shuffled quietly from the church, their faces showing signs of dismay and disbelief. Their hands clutched tightly to funeral programs that contained several photographs of the deceased, for some the last tangible memory of Julie Bowling.
The family has requested condolences be made as donations in Julie Bowling's honor to the American Cancer Society, 8300 Healthpark, Suite 10, Raleigh, NC 27615.
