Remembering Pinto: 'Her love spread exponentially'

Friends and family from as far away as New York and Florida packed Atkins Park Tavern Thursday to remember Smyrna’s fallen angel, Linda Pinto.

Pinto, 62, passed on New Year’s Day from complications due to pancreatic cancer. For many years, the much beloved Pinto served as owner and manager of Angel Ride, a free service that assisted those who had too much to drink in the Smyrna-Vinings area receive a safe ride home.

“It’s just overwhelming the amount of love here and the people that she touched,’’ remarked Pinto’s daughter, Ann Marie Matthews. “She was amazing. She was an angel on earth and now she’s an angel overlooking us now.”

Between runs delivering those too impaired to drive a safe trip home, Pinto would make her home base and her “spunky” and “tenacious’’ personality was infectious to all who came in contact with her.

“Her love spread exponentially,’’ said Atkins Park owner Kevin Drawe. “So many people loved her. I feel blessed I had the opportunity to have her in my life.”

There was a video slide presentation and pictures of Pinto inside the restaurant, where tears were shed, as well. But as Pinto had instructed, there was plenty of laughter and celebration of a life well lived, too.

“There’s been sadness that we won’t have our friend with us everyday,’’ Drawe said. “I’m actually a little concerned and scared because she did so much for us to make sure we were safe. But there’s been joy just thinking about this woman who walked into our lives a few years ago and the impact that one person can make in a short amount of time.”

The Brooklyn, N.Y. native Pinto is survived by her daughter, Matthews; son Michael Pinto; and six grandchildren, Brittany-Lynn, Carissa, Michael, Matthew, Janiece and Nadya.  

Her body was donated to MedCure, a non-transplant tissue bank devoted to compassionate, ethical services that connect whole-body donors to medical research and education while providing innovation and opportunity for scientific medical advancements.  

“We never expected the amount of people who were here,” Matthews said. “The amount of love that was here, I just can’t explain.”