COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. — Neighbors gathered Monday to honor Lindsey Engle, a Colonial Heights woman remembered for her love of family, faith, and friends.
Engle, a mother of three small children, died Saturday from complications following surgery.
She had a passion for luminaries, a Christmas Eve tradition she loved so much that her entire neighborhood brought it back for the past two years in her honor.
When word spread of her death, neighbors responded the only way they knew how.
"When we just got the message we wanted to do this for Lindsey. We expected four or five people and us to be here and spontaneously there were 40 people," Lindsey's older brother Matt Rollins said.
The tribute grew quickly to 150 luminaries.
"She was just a light," family friend Caitlin Henard said.
Those who knew Engle say her warmth was impossible to miss.
"It was not hard at all to love Lindsey," family friend Desiree McCurry said. "I mean as soon as she comes up to you, she'd smile, she'd quite literally light up a room."
McCurry said even as Engle was preparing for surgery, her focus remained on her family and setting up a meal train to make everyone was fed while she recovered.
Friends remembered Engle as someone who was always there when you needed her.
"I think Lindsey is somebody that you can never forget," family friend Jon Labrake said. "She's somebody you could call and she would show up."
Her faith was also central to who she was, those close to her said.
"When people say Christian, loves Jesus, spreads the message, she is very much that person," McCurry said.
When Christmas Eve arrives this year, her memory will be part of the tradition she helped revive.
"It will definitely be something to see, just something to honor her and her memory for sure," Henard said.
The family will receive friends at Small's Funeral Home on Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
A celebration of life will be held Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Life Co Church in Chester. A GoFundMe has been set up for her family.
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