Malinda “Mindy” Pinkston Bubeck, 76, of West Union, IL, was called home by the Lord Jesus Christ on Monday, October 26, 2026, surrounded by her loving family at her daughter’s home in rural Palestine.
Mindy was born at home in Old York on a rainy, damp April 16, 1950, the third of seven children of Wilford and Mildred Pinkston. The family spent several years in Terre Haute, where Mindy and her brother Phillip collected pop bottles to turn in for 3¢ apiece. While there, she took an afternoon job caring for Donna, a woman left paralyzed by a bad accident. Each day, young Mindy fixed her a ham sandwich and a glass of milk, washed her face, combed her hair, and did her nails. “I loved the time I spent with her,” she wrote years later.
The family returned to Old York when Mindy was in seventh grade. In those days, everyone there kept their homesteads neat and tidy, and supper was on the stove at about the same time every evening, filling the air with its aromas. After the dishes were done, Mindy would walk through town, visiting neighbors on their porches and listening to all kinds of stories. It is probably how she became such a good storyteller. Before long, Mindy was writing a story of her own, filled to the brim with life.
Mindy grew up fast. She married Jim Watson at 16, and her daughter Stacey Jo soon became the center of her world. She kept house as she had learned at her mother’s side: a garden to tend, jars to can, and always something to sew. Following her mother-in-law’s stroke, Mindy moved in and cared for her, an early sign of the caregiver she would become. When that chapter of her life closed, she faced the world on her own. “I wasn’t raised to have dreams about my life,” she once wrote. “I just tried what came to me.” What came to her would change many, many lives.
Mindy went to work wherever work could be found, first at Mike and Mildred’s Supper Club, Leo’s Tavern, and Coil Sales in West Union. She then found a job on the line at TRW in Marshall, where she spent 25½ years and earned the respect of coworkers and supervisors alike. Nights and weekends often found her waiting tables at the Silver Moon, something she kept doing off and on for much of her life.
But neither TRW nor the Silver Moon held the whole of Mindy’s heart. She had always been drawn to caring for people, and when Rick Poorman talked her into running on the West Union Ambulance, she found what she called “the most rewarding thing of my life.” Starting as a Basic, she climbed one level at a time until she became a Nationally Registered Paramedic and the first woman paramedic in Clark County. For more than 20 years, much of it as a volunteer, she ran for West Union and neighboring services and spent seven years in the Union Hospital ER. Her partners learned a great deal from her, and they laughed a great deal too. Mindy could tease and pester with the best of them, and a run with Medic 305 was never dull. For Mindy, it was more than a job. “God gave me my calling,” she wrote, and she answered it until she could no longer go on runs.
It was the Silver Moon, though, that gave her the greatest gift of all. In 1990, Carl Bubeck was tending bar while Mindy waited tables, and on May 31, 1999, they were married in a horse pasture, Mindy barefoot and in jeans. Nobody ever loved her the way Carl did, and in his eyes, she was a queen. For 27 years they hunted mushrooms, went to every get-together they could, and traveled whenever Carl could get away. When he couldn’t, Mindy went anyway.
That was Mindy: wherever the fun was, she found it, and if there wasn’t any, she made some. Thursday afternoons belonged to their friends at JP’s, where they mostly socialized and aggravated each other. Feisty and quick-witted, Mindy never needed to be asked what she was thinking, because she had already told you. “I had a certain knack for quick comebacks,” she wrote, “and the pranks I pulled were unaccounted for.” Needless to say, when she walked into a room, everyone knew it. Often, you knew Mindy was coming before you ever saw her, because the scent of patchouli arrived first. Then came the laugh, the teasing, and—of course—a story or two.
The stories she loved telling most, though, were about her family. When Stacey became a nurse, Mindy could hardly contain her pride. And her grandchildren were her treasures. Of all the days she shared with them, Christmas was her favorite, and she saw no reason it should only come once. Her house stayed decorated all year long, with snowmen keeping watch in every corner, so that any day of the year, walking through her door felt a little like Christmas morning.
But for Mindy, Christmas was never only about snowmen and lights. At its heart was the Savior whose birth it celebrates, and she kept Him close all year long, too. A Christian woman, she spent many hours in Bible study with her friends Barb Richards and Lois Jean Shelton. Her faith wasn’t something she kept on a shelf. It was what she leaned on when life got hard, and in her final months, life got very hard. Cancer tested her body, and a house fire in September took her home and her beloved pets. Still, Mindy met each day with the same grit and good humor she always had. Those around her marveled at her strength, but Mindy knew where it came from: she had never walked a single step alone. The Lord had been with her all along. On Monday, He carried her the rest of the way home, and we know she is where she has always been: with Jesus.
Mindy is survived by her husband of 27 years, Carl Bubeck; her daughter, Stacey (Mark) Newlin of Palestine, IL; her stepchildren, Ben (Melissa) Bubeck of Louisiana and Lisa (Bernie) Guerrettaz of Clare, IL; ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; her siblings, Carole (Jerry) Cutright of Casey, IL, Charles (Lisa) Pinkston of Oblong, IL, Debra Bloomer (Vicky Bastian) of Annapolis, IL, and Donna (Roger) Parker of Hutsonville, IL; several nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews; and countless friends whose lives were brighter for having known her.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Wilford and Mildred (Jean) Pinkston; her sister, Nora Snider; her brother, Phillip Pinkston; and twin brothers who died in infancy.
A time of visitation will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Friday, October 30, 2026, at the Prust-Hosch Funeral Home in West Union. Funeral services will immediately follow at 12:00 p.m., with Celebrant Curt Goodwine officiating. During the service, family and friends will be given the opportunity to speak to the fullness of her life. Burial will be in the York Cemetery. In honor of the wonderful care they provided Mindy in the twilight of her life, memorial contributions may be made to Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospice, with envelopes available at the funeral home.
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