Cynthia Wootton, Forever in Our Hearts (June 17, 1952-November 29, 2024)
In honor of my beloved aunt.
My dad, Chad Wootton, is the youngest of six children, and the only boy out of those six children. He has five older sisters: Cheryl, Laurel, Cynthia, and the twins, Emily and Ginny (from oldest to youngest, respectively). Early Friday morning, Cynthia passed away, after spending Thanksgiving surrounded by family in hospice care in San Diego. Cynthia’s death comes after a long battle with cancer; and, while death is always overwhelming to contend with, I find it comforting to know that Cynthia chose to pass on her own terms. She chose to stop chemotherapy when the pain was too much to bear, and her end-of-life hospice care room overlooked the Pacific Ocean. All of us got to say goodbye to her and tell her we loved her, whether in person or over FaceTime, and she passed peacefully after a beautiful Thanksgiving day.
Cynthia and I spent a lot of time together as I was growing up. While she never had children of her own, she and her husband Alan always had at least two cats at any given time, and tended fastidiously to their garden, where several generations of those pet cats roamed and played. Cynthia knew so much about nature, animals, and spirituality; I learned recently that she first met Alan in a manifestation workshop. The last time I was back home in California — just a few months ago, before Cynthia’s cancer rapidly progressed — I drove down to San Diego and took an incredibly special hike in the beautiful Torrey Pines with Cynthia, Alan, and my dad. At each moment, Cynthia would stop and smell the flora and fauna, sharing some unique fact about an herb I had never seen before. We saw dolphins splash in the sea beneath us. As I felt the clean breeze on my skin, I had a feeling this would be the last meaningful amount of time that I would spend with Cynthia, and I appreciated each and every second of it.
Cynthia, I hope to always honor your memory in my appreciation of animals and the natural world. Thank you for all you taught me.
Such a lovely tribute to our beloved Cynthia! She was truly connected to nature. She took so much pleasure in stopping on walks to appreciate each new plant or flower we passed, to enjoy the sound of birds in the trees, to listen to the water gently flowing in streams or the ocean waves breaking on the shore! I miss my hiking buddy so much!!
This is a beautiful tribute. I was friends with Cynthia in college. I still remember her senior year art project: a path of stones and other textures in a garden. I will always remember her lovely spirit.