Page 72 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2022 - Online Magazine
P. 72
Exceptional
SENIORS
Cyndy West-Ward
Charmed Childhood,
Charming Lady
by Jane Bromley
parents moved to New York City begged her dad to let her attend a
where her dad was stationed on the boarding school in Switzerland—
USS Westwind for two years. She The Florissant School for Girls—so
remembers seeing Harvey the Rabbit she could learn French (and skiing).
on Broadway and the ballet Swan It was as amazing as she’d hoped,
Lake. At the age of four, her family and by the end of the year, she was
moved to St. Augustine, FL where fluent in French and a pretty good
Cyndy remembers catching her first skier.
fish off the docks. Capt. West was
then stationed in Virginia Beach, and One memory is still especially vivid
the girls lived close enough to the from that winter in Switzerland. Her
beach to walk. After a stint in New granddaughter Anaïs once asked
London, CT, and another in Virginia her about skiing, and she related
Beach, the family moved to Miami, this misadventure. An English boy
where Cyndy graduated from the she’d met at a school mixer heard
elite Coral Gables High School. her talking about a medal she’d won
in a local ski race. He asked her to
At a recent performance of the Lubbock Chorale The girls enjoyed so many things meet him at Gstaad Peak. On the
about their childhood, but even lift, she was feeling like a princess
more wonderful times awaited them until she realized they were headed
alter Reed Hospital in when Capt. West was stationed in to the advanced slope. After many
Washington DC is famous Naples, Italy as head of the US Coast falls and Richard skiing off with a
Wfor caring for wounded Guard/Mediterranean. The family more experienced (female) skier,
veterans, but it is also the birthplace lived in a beautiful marble villa and she unlatched her boots and walked
of a lovely Lubbockite. Cynthia learned to down the steep
West’s daddy was deployed at sea communicate slope. Maybe it
during WWII. Her mom, aunts, in Italian. stuck in her head
and grandmother all had husbands (Capt. West because it was the
serving their country. In fact, her thought it was only bad experience
grandfather Admiral Powell Rhea rude to live that entire year.
had been a submariner in WWI. somewhere
Cyndy’s father Ralph West was a and not learn She wanted to
captain in the US Coast Guard. the native continue her
language.) new skills, so
Because of Capt. West’s career, Cyndy had she attended
Cyndy and her sisters, Jackie and graduated the University
Keeley, had a charmed childhood. from high of Grenoble in
When Cyndy was young, her the French Alps
school, but she
72 Lubbock Senior Link
