Sorry for your loss. This reminds me of attending a nice Baptist wedding where we arrived early to get a seat. I picked up the hymnal and scanned the index. Not a single song with the name Mary in it. I thought, how weird, to shun the Virgin Mary but I was Catholic and that is how I think. But it was a nice wedding in any case. It would have been better with Ave Maria.
The Ave Maria was composed by Franz Schubert and is one of my favorite songs when performed by someone with a strong voice. I seem to recall a Christmas album from the 60’s that had Ana Maria Alberghetti singing it. This is a song that sounds convincing in the original german, even if, like me, you are not fluent in german. The German versions seem best when a man’s baritone is used.