Cynthia Hall Schonborn

November 7, 1951 to August 23, 2024

Dear Friends,

This is Jan, Cynthia’s husband. You have traveled with us through joyous and challenging times. Throughout it all, I feel your love and connection to Cynthia and what she has shared with you. Your messages and cards have brought smiles to both of us.

My heart is broken open. My beloved Cynthia left her body on Friday, August 23^rd.

She had been through a lot this year and especially in the last few weeks. Last Friday she set herself free. Her body could not be sustained any longer.

All people die, but not all people live. Oh, how our Cynthia lived! She packed so much life into her seventy-two years. She traveled, painted, wrote, chased her dreams, worked in a few jobs she loved, fell in love, decorated, organized and archived, for many years just putting one foot in front of the other battling what she knew from the start was an incurable disease.

You see Cynthia was the Love of my Life and the Joy of my Existence. She was also that Joy to so many others. Cynthia’s love transformed the lives of everyone she encountered. She brought a bounty of beauty to everything she did…with her art, her ideas, her smile and unbounded love. She had a remarkable ability to connect with people, share herself and evoke that same spirit of love in each person she met.

Cynthia and I met in May of 1981 at The Occasion for the Arts in Colonial Williamsburg. I was smitten at first sight. After much walking and talking I asked her out for a date and was told that her best friend Sandy had to approve, so off to meet the Sandy. After approval and a first date in Yorktown, it was the second date that showed her courage and opened up the world of possibilities. I picked her up and drove her out to Williamsburg Airport and parked next to a 2-passenger Cessna. I announced that we were going to fly to Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay for dinner at Mrs. Crockett’s and that I was the pilot. She had a decision to make. Cynthia looked at the plane and then at me and said, “My mother is going to KILL me. Lets go.” I have not stopped smiling since.

Our Cynthia was a voracious reader, learner and mom to generations of fuzz faces, a stubborn force to be reckoned with, an unrelenting advocate for being who you are and doing what you want. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet, funny, and intelligent. She chose elegant over flashy and was deeply sentimental.

She beat her own drum and cherished the many other fabulous drums (friends) that she surrounded herself with. Cynthia’s free spirit was always up for adventure and she was blessed by a tight group of friends who joined her.

Cynthia earned her first degree in the Humanities at Virginia Wesleyan College. While there studied Political Systems, capping it off with trips to the Soviet Union and to Cuba, to see them for herself. She also studied Archeology and took that knowledge to Arizona where she was part of a team working on the Navajo Reservation. Later she was a lead archeologist on the Gathright Dam Project 19 miles north of Covington, Virginia.

Cynthia also had a brief career as a fashion model, appearing in many newspaper ads, brochures and live runway shows. She took her portfolio to NYC, London and Paris.

Deciding against a model’s life Cynthia went back to her studies, this time at William and Mary where she earned degrees in Philosophy and Anthropology / Archeology. Her studies of Museum Sciences took her to George Washington University and The Smithsonian. Cynthia then worked with The Jamestown Yorktown Foundation and Chief Oliver Adkins of the Chickahominy Tribe to create, build and interpret the first Indian village on site at Jamestown.

With the Village up and running, Cynthia went to work for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in both the Archeology Lab and in the Collections Department, specifically the Collection’s ceramics and textiles. During that time, Cynthia started her own business, Critter Sitters, in home pet care. She along with William and Mary students cared for pets while their owners were away.

After we moved to Chesapeake in 1986, Cynthia worked for Sentara’s brand new Adult Day Health Care Center in Virginia Beach and then for the main office of the Chesapeake Community Services Board.

When Cynthia’s work life came to an end, she filled her days with volunteer work at the center of her spiritual life, Unity Renaissance Spiritual Life Center. She served in many capacities there, from twice being a member of the Board of Trustees, Women’s Group, Couples Group, Historian, Yard Sale Organizer Extraordinaire and general volunteer for whatever needed doing. Cynthia enjoyed singing in the choir, teaching Navajo philosophy, and acting parts in many plays, skits and murder mysteries.

Cynthia was born, Cynthia Darlene Hall to Ruth Gwendolyn Inman Hall (deceased) and Emory Odell Hall. She is survived by her husband Jan Kevin Schonborn, her father Emory Hall Sr., siblings Emory [Earp] Hall Jr. (Susan), David Hall (Trace Hines), Lisa Laws and (Bruce) and many in-laws, cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.

A Celebration of Cynthia’s Life is scheduled for 4:00 PM, Saturday, October 19, 2024 with a Potluck dinner to follow. The location is Unity Renaissance Spiritual Life Center, 1120 Eden Way N, Chesapeake, VA 23320, telephone 757-420-5280.

If you have stories or pictures to share, please post them here.

There is so much more that should be said, but in the end, what Cynthia did was make our world brighter. With a passionate spirit, a determined grit and a delight-full smile, she will be remembered as a brave warrior who embodied grace, strength and courage.

My beloved, you ran the race set out before you. You are now resting in the arms of your loving Mother….
You lived and loved well.