Lindy Janelle Ingram

Lindy Janelle Ingram was born on October 30, 1978 in Nampa, Idaho to Deborah Cameron and David McAbee. Her childhood was filled with family: time spent laughing with her aunts and uncles and dinners at her grandparents’ house. The people surrounding her were artists who shared their appreciation for beauty with Lindy. Her grandmother taught her to love painting; her mother sparked her love of flowers and taught her about home decorating. Those childhood interests later became her passions. Lindy’s adult homes were filled with paintings and painting supplies (until the months before her passing, she was an avid painter). Oil paints were her first love, but she dabbled in watercolors, pen and ink sketches, and charcoals. She decorated and redecorated her home, swapping things like pillows and window treatments to match with the seasons. She loved to make a house a home, and she found beauty in so many different things.

Lindy fondly remembered working at her grandfather’s fruit stand as a child so she could spend more time with him, and working with mom as a teenager to arrange and deliver flowers. They would often make the drive from Idaho to Washington just to pick locally grown flowers and her particular favorite, hydrangeas.

Lindy’s mother married her stepfather, Chuck, who Lindy adored, and who became father and grandfather immediately. The next year, Lindy got a summer job working at Chuck’s RV manufacturing company. On her first day, a young man named Richard (Rich), who was also new to the company, spotted her from across the conference room as they were filling out their employment paperwork. As two of the only employees at the company of their age, they naturally ended up spending a lot of time together, and their relationship blossomed.

Rich and Lindy were friends for months before they became anything more; they worked in different areas of the business, but would meet to eat a 10:00 p.m. swing-shift-lunch together every day. Rich even talked his way into carpooling to work with Lindy (even though he didn’t live anywhere near her), just so he could spend more time with her. Rich was smitten, but terrified to ask her out on a date. One night, he finally worked up the courage. She responded: “It’s about time! I was going to ask you out tomorrow if you didn’t today.” Rich and Lindy’s first date was July 16th of that year; within a month they met each other’s families, and by the following April they were married. From that day, until the end, they were devoted to each other.

Eleven days after their wedding, Rich began his career with the United States Navy and left for a six-month assignment in Chicago, while Lindy stayed behind in Idaho. Lindy seemed to become a military wife effortlessly. She jumped into the lifestyle full-speed ahead (the way she did everything), adapting and taking charge as things changed. She and Rich wrote letters back and forth while they were apart, and at the end of every deployment she would wait on the pier with their kids looking out for Rich’s ship to arrive home.

Rich’s career gave Lindy the opportunity to “make a house a home” in houses across the country. Over their 21 years of marriage, the couple and their family lived in Chicago, Illinois; Bremerton, Washington; Hawaii (one of her favorite locations—she adored the abundant flowers, vibrant greens and blues of the ocean, and the smell of saltwater in the air); and California.

Lindy is survived by her husband, Richard; her five children, Ashlee Renee Stacey, Payton Stewart Ingram, Raven Renae Sowders, Kadence Justine Sowders, and Jack Martin Ingram; her granddaughter, Adelyn; her parents, Deborah and Charles; her sister, Stephanie; her grandmother, June; and many other aunts, uncles, and cousins.

She was proud to be a mother and a grandmother, and she loved even the most “normal” part of the job: things like driving the kids to school, making home-cooked meals in the evening, helping the kids with their homework, being home for them after school, going to the park, and going to the beach to build sandcastles. Time was precious to her, and time spent together with family was never wasted. Lindy poured her whole heart into relationships and held the people she loved close. She had a smile for everybody. She was a wonderful, caring, beautiful soul whose presence in a room made the room feel like a better place.

On May 7, 2019, Lindy awakened to eternal life with Jesus after a courageously fought fight with melanoma skin cancer. Lindy’s last moments were spent peacefully at home, surrounded by people who loved her. A Godly woman who loved Jesus and her church, Lindy viewed her final moments on Earth as the beginning of the next stage in her life.

If you remember one thing about Lindy, let it be this: Lindy loved life. She loved being a mom, she loved God, and she loved other people. Lindy loved—unquestioningly and unconditionally. Lindy loved.
 

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