A Little Background - insert your favorite 60's music by Dave Hileman

I first met Cindy because my cousin, her best friend, invited me to a party Cindy held on Valentines Day in 1964. I know the date because she had the new album, Meet the Beetles, playing non-stop on the turntable and everyone was singing “I want to hold your hand.” I would turn 16 that summer, she just turned 14. Cindy had a boyfriend at the party but I took notice of her immediately and I really did want to hold her hand. I got my drivers license that fall but did not get a car until late winter. Insurance had to be paid first. So with the guy from Valentines Day long gone, I asked Cindy to a dance in the spring. And I could drive - big deal. We went to the dance, a few blocks from her house and then to get a burger after. I walked her to her door and she kissed me. Life changed that evening. I was enamored. She was beautiful. She was not flighty nor silly, she was sure of herself and so fun to be around. She had a good sense of humor or at least liked my jokes which is, of course, the same thing. Cindy valued family, took responsibilities seriously and was a very disciplined person. Qualities I admired and ones I desired but lacked. But she was leaving for Atlantic City where she spent the summers working at the YWCA along with her Aunt B. So it was only letters and phone calls - after 11 if you are old enough to understand why you get it - until school started for my senior year, her junior. We lived about 9 miles apart but that spring I had started working at a place just a mile or two from her house. Several times a week - it was too late to go out as I got off about 11), we would sit on her steps and talk. Long talks about dreams and reality. I was falling deeply in love with her. I remember taking her to see The Graduate at a unique theater in Shadyside (Pittsburgh’s answer to Haight Ashbury in 1967) and we ate in a small Italian restaurant. We felt very sophisticated.  We went somewhere almost every week, to a park, a concert, a movie, dinner, downtown Pittsburgh or just long rides to get a donut or an ice cream. The longer the ride the better. I took her more than one time to get a donut at a place almost 60 miles away just so we could be together. Plus gas was 33 cents. Once she packed a lunch and we drove in my pristine 1950 Chevy deluxe convertible with the top down on old route 30 from Pittsburgh to Gettysburg for a picnie and back that evening. After she graduated high school, I was dabbling in college, she left for Atlantic City, then off to Hood College in Frederick, MD. I visited her in AC and once she was in college, almost every two weeks I would travel to Frederick from Pittsburgh. We had great weekends exploring DC and Lancaster, the Virginia and Maryland countryside and Baltimore. We were engaged in the fall of her junior year and married on May 8, 1971, the weekend before she graduated.

Cindy in one of the 21 cars I owned in less than 5 years. Economic tip: buying cars from a junk yard is not a long term strategy.

Thoughts by Dave Hileman

I plan this week to share some thoughts and reflections about Cindy. Starting next Monday I will be back to regular posting (with an occasional look back - you don’t just close the door on a nearly 60 year relationship).

This week I want to celebrate Cindy: her faith, her love, her respect, her work, her joy and her delight in children and grandchildren. It will not be comprehensive; at times these words may not be comprehendible. She was the joy of my life, the first girl I kissed, the last girl I kissed and the only one in between. She filled my life in ways I am unfolding in my grief and the void is real. My family and friends are doing their best to help fill that gap, I deeply appreciate it. God is a promise that feels, right now, like a promise not meant for me, yet I know better. In time I trust that I will find even deeper faith and strength. I already feel sustained by prayers. As the week builds for me, my family and many friends to the memorial service on Saturday I seek only to honor her.

Cynthia Ann Jackson Hileman 1950 - 2023 by Dave Hileman

Cindy was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 21st. All the subsequent tests proved the cancer was extensive. She was released from the hospital on September 1st to be cared for at home. Additional testing by her oncologist left us with no options for treatment. She was re-admitted to the hospital 18th of September with many new issues. Cindy passed away early on Thursday morning.

This post will remain up until Sunday the first of October. I will write more personally later but for now I am including her obituary below:

Cynthia Ann Jackson Hileman, 73, recently of Raleigh NC, passed away on Thursday, September 21, 2023. She was born on January 7, 1950, in Mount Pleasant, PA, to the late Rev. Robert William Jackson and Jean Sherrieb Jackson. After her parents’ deaths in 1958, she was raised by her Aunt B, Bernice Sherrieb in the Natrona Heights community near Pittsburgh.

She graduated from Hood College in 1971 with a BS in Foods and Nutrition. Cindy was married to Dave Hileman in 1971 and over their 52 years together they lived in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, forging deep friendships at every stop. Most recently, Cindy worked as the financial administrator for Waypoint Church Partners. Since retiring, they have traveled over 130,000 miles together visiting 357 National Park sites in all 50 states.

In addition to Dave, Cindy is survived by her sons and their wives, Geof (Laura), of Raleigh NC, and Gregg (Jessica), of Toano VA, and her grandchildren, Kellen and fiancee Lauren Gebbie, Addie, and Ellary Bea. She also had two step-grandchildren, Brooke and Melanie of New York.

The burial is private but a memorial service will be held at Union Grove Christian Church at 3125 Ridge Road, Barboursville, Virginia, at 2:00pm on Saturday, October 7th. Friends are welcome an hour before and after the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family appreciates any donations for the next new church to Waypoint Church Partners, PO Box 6224, Williamsburg, VA 23188.

At Disney November 2022

Street Scene by Dave Hileman

Lady paused her shopping to take a call in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Sponge Capitol of the US. Lots of neat murals in the town. Note the Greek names of the streets about the English spelling.

Eye of the Eagle by Dave Hileman

On the back country tour of Monument Valley our guide took us to the remarkable arch called Eye of the Eagle. The photo shows the scale of the rock formation with some people on the bottom edge of the photo. I could just barely get it in the frame with the one lens I had on the jeep tour. The interesting thing was if you lay on your back under the arch you could see the outline of the eagle where rock layers had peeled off and the arch fit perfectly into that space for its eye.

The “eye” and a portion of the head of the eagle

Delicate Balance by Dave Hileman

This is not the usual view of the Delicate Arch at Arches National Park. If you drive past the main parking lot you come to an alternative trail. Not one to reach but only view the famous arch found on the plates of Utah automobiles. This shot is from over 2 miles from the arch and the canyon is 900 feet deep.

Reminds me of a Dylan Song by Dave Hileman

“Seen a shooting star tonight. And I thought of you” It is from Shooting Star and is Dylan’s interpretation of the return of Jesus. To be fair lots of things remind me of Dylan songs. I, of course, do not actually know the name of the flower. I did shoot the photo this spring in New Mexico. So if it is not called Shooting Star, it ought to be renamed!

UPDATE: Geof looked it up and it is a David Fuchsia, now you also get a botanical education.

Camping in all the Usual Places... by Dave Hileman

….not quite. We have a Harvest Host membership and we get to stay in great spots like these sample:

Fruit stand in Florida

Dairy Farm in NY

Winery in Pennsylvania

Apple Orchard in Washington

Movie studio in LA owned by “Bo Duke”

Organic Beef Farm in Georgia

Winery in Wisconsin

Winery in Texas

Golf Course in NM

Alley by Dave Hileman

I know, WHY? Don’t know but it interested me. Loved the radomness of the changes over the years when no one has to make it “pretty".” Sadly that says much more about me than I like. Found in a small town in West Virginia.

Viewpoint by Dave Hileman

This stream flows from deep underground in Mammoth Cave National Park. The cave itself is well worth more than a single visit for there are many types of tours you can take in the world’s longest known cavern system. They discover more every year. This shot is still in the park but I am hiking up a steep ridge away from the river and there was a viewing platform perched on the side of the cliff. I reached over the side and shot this stream that flows to the river, it may or may not included a step or two past the railing. I liked the gentle bend of the stream and the shadows of the trees. You would not see much of this in the summer through the leaf canopy.

Coot and Tree by Dave Hileman

This is a reservoir for the town of Kanab, Utah. They were rather thrilled after several years below normal rain and snow that in the spring of 2023 the reservoir was overflowing. It made for an interesting walk around the lake where in places the trail went through a couple of feet of water so you had to make a detour on higher ground. The sun was just beginning to set in the cold sky as we threaded our way around the two mile trail. I liked this tree set apart from the other trees with a coot swimming around its trunk well away from the other coots on the lake. I wonder what they were saying to each other as fellow loners.

Toadstool by Dave Hileman

A few miles east of Kanab, Utah in the midst of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument is a small trail that is fascinating. The Toadstool might not be the name of the trail, I don’t recall for certain, but it is the name of the rock formations that are found in large numbers across the region. The trail follows a dry water course and then up a steep ridge. In the distant are high cliffs and in the plain that stretches in front of the cliffs are dozens of free standing shapes most of them looking like mushroom fed way too much Miracle Grow. Hiking along the trail led to a saline wash the bright white contrasting with the pink and red of the other stones. Just a cool place to experience a unique environment in the always interesting Southern Utah.

Visual Dictionary: Dappled by Dave Hileman

I have no idea why but this has long been my favorite house in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Cindy and I honeymooned here, visited often and then lived in the area for 25 years. I never tired of walking these streets, any time of day any season of the year. And I was always drawn to the Sign of Rhinoceros and on this day, just after a summer rain storm, the air was fresh and the sun came out and danced with the leaves. Great memory.

Stillness by Dave Hileman

Low tide on Frenchman’s Bay in Bar Harbor and the fog muffles the lapping of the water and the creaking of the dock. The boats tilt and tip on the gentle current. Acadia is always special.