Lorinda Esther Skeie

Lorinda Esther Skeie, 87, of Amarillo passed peacefully in her home on June 4, 2025.

Matthew 5:16:

“Let your light shine before men,

that they may see your good deeds and

glorify your Father in heaven.”

Lorinda Skeie

December 14th, 1937 – June 4th, 2025

From her humble beginnings on a farm in Zarephath, New Jersey, Lindy graduated from Alma White College in 1963 with a major in English and a minor in Education, both of which she used extensively throughout her life, albeit not always in the classroom. Sure, she taught in the traditional sense, progressing through her career from a kindergarten to elementary-school to high-school English teacher; however, after becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom for her two children, Bentley and Erica, she continued her vocation as a lifelong teacher. Lindy worked tirelessly as a church volunteer, helping pastors revise their bumbling sermons and proofread their bulletins for typoes; as a Sunday-school teacher, shaping countless children into a more compassionate, forgiving, critically thinking generation; and a vigilante grammatical corrections officer, quickly setting to rights anyone who dared end sentences with a preposition around her.

Yet Lindy’s meticulousness served not the purpose of faultfinding, but of pursuing wisdom, of fostering beauty, and of sharing that wisdom and beauty with others. Lindy lived in a way that emphasized selflessness over self-interest, underscoring the importance that we should let grace, love, and forgiveness guide our lives—“To let God’s will be done, not ours,” as she would say, and to seek guidance from a higher power. She envisioned God’s kingdom as one that we could work towards creating here and now, even as we suffered grief and trials: a kingdom benefitting everyone, and one in which everyone is welcome. This radical compassion, she owed to her faith that, as she might’ve quoted from the Bible, “the Lord in his great mercy has given us now birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Even these beliefs, though, she took care never to force upon people. True to her character as a teacher, she made clear and measured arguments for what she believed, why she believed it, and how it would benefit everyone regardless if they believed the same.

Even though Lindy’s faith served as the raw material of her soul, she took care to use it to shape herself into a true renaissance woman, singing in the church choir, playing handbells, learning crafts with her friends, handwriting almost calligraphic letters (including several love notes to her husband during their long-distance relationship in the 1960s that would’ve made Lord Byron blush), painstakingly designing and hand-stitching embroideries celebrating others’ birthdays and weddings, reading voraciously and omnivorously, parenting, grandparenting, and—that most crucial skill of all—listening. Lindy had the rare gift of being both listener and talker, and that even rarer gift of the jurisprudence to balance both. Her keen and unique ability to listen for the world’s beauty uplifted all of us who knew her, and often extended far beyond the material reality immediately visible to us. For her, beauty could appear even in the most unconventional places: she could wonder over the patterned wood grain in a freshly cleaned floor, the way a broken branch carefully clung to a storm-torn tree, the never-ending miracle of the sunrise that she’d watch from the same window every day for years. This attunement to the world’s beauty manifested most readily, though, in her skill for finding the light in others, from fellow churchgoers to strangers in bookstores, from her son-in-law Dan and daughter-in-law Connie to her husband with whom she cultivated over sixty years of love.

Even if Lindy’s light has left this world, its reflection shines and will continue shining in those who knew her: her lessons of constant love, of faith in that which cannot be seen, of unapologetic joy and always, always listening. She spent her last week of life at home surrounded by family, sharing a final communion and singing one of her favorite hymns, “I Know My Redeemer Lives.” Her last words served as the summation of all that she’d worked to embody throughout her life: “Thy will be done.” Even then, after a years-long journey with Alzheimer’s disease, she listened; even then, she believed; even then, she loved back. Just as she always did. This is her legacy, and her final homework assignment for us.

Let us begin.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus Our Lord

~ Romans 8:38-39

The family of Lindy Skeie would like to thank all our neighbors in Amarillo,TX, and the members of both Trinity Lutheran Church in Amarillo, TX, and Garden City, KS, who have showered us with cards, food and flowers but above all with prayers and love. You have been with us in our moments of grief as we shared tears but also the comfort of knowing that we are assured of a homecoming with joy and thanksgiving since we have the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

There will be no local service as Lindy’s ashes will be laid to rest the weekend of August 15, in the Skeie Family Cemetery in Lempster, NH, and next to her parents grave at Zarephath, NJ, overlooking Lindy Lake (constructed by her father between 1956 and 1977) along Lindy Lake Dr.