My beautiful mother, Helena Celeste Lindsey, passed away on November 22, 2020 at the age of 83 in the loving care of her family, Rocky Mountain Assisted Living and Memory Care, and Elevation Hospice. My mom was born on February 23, 1937 in Manaus, Brazil where she grew up in a large family with seven siblings. She was the second youngest child of João and Leopoldina de Oliveira. As a young adult she lived in Rio de Janeiro where she met and married an American in 1969, Archibald Watson. Shortly thereafter, they relocated to the United States and shared nine wonderful years of marriage together while raising two daughters, Valerie Todd (born in 1970) and me (born in 1971). In 1978, she tragically lost her beloved husband to cancer.  Thankfully, she had the courage to keep moving forward and found love again.  She was remarried in 1979 to Dan Lindsey, Jr. and proudly became a U.S. citizen that same year.  

My mother was a fiercely independent woman who had the drive and determination to actively pursue her goals in life. She studied English in Brazil and trained as a secretary. As a result, she proudly accepted a position as a secretary for an American company located in Rio. Once she moved to the U.S., she developed an interest in law and with much enthusiasm, studied and became a legal secretary. She was spoken of fondly by the attorneys she worked for as their best asset; the person that kept them organized and on time.  

In 1998, she sadly lost her second husband to cancer again.  By that time she had become a grandmother and shortly thereafter, a retiree. She was a devout Catholic and spent her retirement volunteering for different activities within St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Foster City, California. In 2014, she moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to be with me and our extended family. In 2015, she laid to rest her eldest daughter, Valerie, and sorely missed all the wonderful times they spent together.  Shortly afterwards she developed dementia. In 2019, she moved with my family and I to Colorado where she enjoyed the last year of her life in the loving and caring home of Rocky Mountain Assisted Living and Memory Care. She succumbed to the effects of dementia in November 2020 without pain and in true peace. She is the last of her siblings to pass and is survived by me (daughter), Sean Parker (son-in-law), Sierra Parker (granddaughter) and Bryce Parker (grandson). She is also survived by the loving members of our extended family: Larry Parker, Nicole Parker McGinnes and her family, Ron Wilkinson and his family, Gabe Stearns (Senior), Gabe Stearns, Jr. and his family, Catherine Hubbard and her family, and my numerous cousins that reside in Brazil.  

Please join me on December 12, 2020 at 11am to celebrate her life through a virtual ceremony hosted by In Memoriam Funeral Home. More details will follow. Once the pandemic is over, a mass will be said in my mom’s honor in the Catholic Church.

With Love, Christina Parker

**The memorial service replay is available at https://my.gather.app/remember/helena-lindsey

Technical support during the livestream will be limited and may be remedied by simply refreshing your browsers page if you do not see live video feed. Please rest assured that if you are having trouble connecting the day of, the recorded service will be posted a few days after the service.