There’s no slowing Marcia Beagan down.

Whether it’s the Hendricken graduation, a wedding, a chorus concert or a church service, she’s there at her electric piano. She never sits impassively. She’s swings with the music often pointing to the chorus or choir while joining in song.

You might conclude the performance is about her. Think again. Marcia is about putting the spotlight on others even in the worst of conditions, like when it’s spitting rain or there’s a mean cold wind off Greenwich Bay.

I thought of her Friday when I realized I wouldn’t be returning to Warwick until Easter afternoon. For years, maybe 20, maybe more, I’ve found her shortly after 7 on Easter morning on the sand at Oakland Beach, usually wearing a bright winter coat and sporting a broad-brimmed Easter hat. She’d be setting things up for a service sponsored by the Congregational Church of Oakland Beach at St. Rita’s Church.

Pastor Warren Marble of the Congregational Church and Father Francis O’Hara of St. Rita’s started the early Easter morning service as a means of bringing the community together and telling the story of the disciples fishing in the Sea of Tiberius following Christ’s resurrection. The disciples were uncertain who was on shore, but then Christ tells them where to cast their nets. They do as instructed, and the nets are so full they can’t lift them into the boat. It’s then that they realize the man is Christ.

Pastor Marble arranged for a boat at the waters’ edge, and between the two churches they recruited disciples and a parishioner to play Jesus who walked the beach some distance before arriving at the boat. There’s more to it than the reenactment. The Congregational bell choir played hymns and those assembled joined in song and prayers.

Since the passage of Pastor Marble and retirement of Father O’Hara, the beach service has continued, albeit not as elaborately. Marcia and the churches have carried forth the tradition and pageantry of the sunrise service.

I called and learned she would be playing at multiple services during the next three days at St. Rita’s and St. Timothy. And she related her episode from Palm Sunday, when she was in such a rush she missed breakfast and forgot her phone. She ended up being taken to Kent Hospital, but fortunately it was nothing serious … just not taking enough care of herself. It would have helped to have had breakfast.  She questioned how much longer she could continue doing all she does.  “I did myself in,” she said.

But that was just a passing thought. She was on to preparations for Easter morning. She and Pastor Michael Ashe from the Congregational Church had met. He was still looking to find the wooden cross to be erected on the jetty, which is all part of the setting. I didn’t ask about the boat, the net and on the beach fire where the disciples – many of them neighborhood kids – would huddle in their robes and turbans to ward off the morning chill.

Toward the end of the service, fish and bread would be offered from baskets to those attending. Marcia would see to it. She had the bread and the fish sticks were in the freezer, ready to be cut into bite-sized pieces after being heated Sunday morning.  In response to concerns over cleanliness, Marcia placed the fish and bread in small plastic bags. She’s on top of the details.

On Tuesday I gave her a follow-up call to see how it all went.

“Oh my God, things were flying around,” she said of winds Easter morning. She said two men held down the 5-foot speakers on tripods so they wouldn’t topple, and enactors held on to their robes and turbans.

“That was the longest week of the year,” she said giving a rundown of all her performances. Then, on second thought, she concluded, “It was a lovely week. Thank God.”

For many it wouldn’t have been Easter without her. That’s her gift.