Sulinda Jane Torrey

On November 28th, 2025, the world lost a beautiful soul and a genuinely wonderful human being. Sue Torrey was a woman with a powerful inner light and a radiant smile that touched the lives of countless people. It is that big smile that will be carried in our hearts and memories, exemplifying her gift and purpose in life: to bring warmth, joy, and authentic connection to all she met.

Sulinda Jane Torrey was born in Frankfort, Indiana, on October 12th, 1942. She was the first of six children, born to Lyndell Udell Henderson (Dickerson) and Robert Glenn Henderson. As the eldest daughter in a family of five girls and one boy, she had a leadership role in the family that would last throughout her life. Her siblings remember her as an energetic, entertaining, and imaginative sister who created worlds of adventure for them. She wrote and directed plays, engaging them in building props and presenting their productions. She told them stories, read to them, and took them on outings.

Throughout her life, Sue was a dedicated student. She attended several elementary schools as her family moved around the country. She graduated from Mar Vista High School in Imperial

Beach and attended Grossmont Community College in El Cajon, California.

Sue moved to Atascadero, California, in 1970, and spent the rest of her life on the Central Coast. She raised six children, had a passion for working and playing outside, gardening, raising animals, swimming in Atascadero Lake, hiking, camping, and traveling to visit family. She loved road trips and would take her children on many, stopping at all the sites, reading every sign, and enthusiastically learning all she could about a place, its history, and people.

All who knew Sue were witnesses to her storytelling skills. She had an excellent memory and was an oral historian for family and loved ones. Due to her superb recall of people, events, and information, she was often called on for fact-checking.

Sue returned to school after the birth of her sixth child and worked her way through nursing school at Cuesta Community College, graduating in 1981. She was passionate about and excelled in patient care. After her initial nursing career, she became an administrator at Twin Cities Community Hospital, serving as Director of Nursing. When she retired, she was not yet done caring for people and became a massage therapist, ultimately teaching massage classes at California Holistic Institute. She was a hands-on healer and teacher for 20 years before retiring once again in 2023.

For Sue, retirement meant she’d find new ways to be in service to others. She became a student of Non-Violent Communication (NVP), and went on to become a passionate leader in

the local Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), working in prisons with incarcerated individuals. She was deeply loved by this community, where she was known as Smiling Sue.

Sue had a lifelong calling to philosophy and spiritual inquiry, ultimately becoming a Quaker, a path that, like all her passions, became a central focus in her life. She poured her energy into

organizational leadership within the Quaker community, including being a long-time participant in a volunteer-driven monthly homeless supper, working on the monthly newsletter, teaching

first-day school for her local meeting, and taking on many administrative and leadership roles, as well as participating in committees and functions throughout California. Sue was well known and well loved by countless Quaker friends far and wide.

Sue never met a stranger. Those who met her couldn’t help but feel the joy in her presence and acceptance in her welcoming spirit. She created an affirmation that she shared with family and friends right up until her passing - Love and Compassion, Healing Energy, Total Acceptance. This phrase is no doubt a comfort to many who loved her and are missing her bright presence.Throughout her life and in all her experiences, both joyful and challenging, Sue would share her understanding of the interconnectedness in all of life. This was a central theme in her last years, and she would often remind us that everyone and everything has that of God within, no exceptions.

Sue was an incredible example of the goodness inherent in human beings. She would often center herself in gratitude, especially when feeling the ups and downs that life inevitably brings. When remembering Sue, her family asks that you smile, nurture your connections with others, and practice gratitude for the gift of life. For many years, on her morning walks, she recited a daily gratitude prayer, and in closing, we’d like to share an excerpt from it: ”And for all the gifts of creation, for all the love around us, greetings and thanks”. -from A Daily Thanksgiving, Inspired by the Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee