{"id":100990,"date":"2020-08-02T10:57:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T17:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=100990"},"modified":"2022-04-14T11:54:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T18:54:13","slug":"the-joy-of-cynthias-dance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=100990","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Cynthia\u2019s Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Courtesy California Historical Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I saw Cynthia’s picture today. Just the single photo brings back such mixed emotions.<\/p>\n

I feel joy seeing her face because it reminds me of the first time I met her. It was in the 70’s at the Bogue home. The Bogues were my legal guardians, and I shared a room with their youngest daughter Marilee. The Pursley family came to visit the home one day, likely because they were looking for a place for her. The Bogues had a board and care home that housed developmentally delayed women.<\/p>\n

Cynthia caught my attention because \u2013 I thought \u2013 she was younger than I. I was surprised learn that she was actually three years older than me. Wow, she seemed like a baby to me.<\/p>\n

The two of us became roommates and shared a bedroom for about a year. We got along well. I liked her innocence and her sweetness. Her laughter was precious. I used to crack up teaching her to dance. She liked to sing…<\/p>\n

Seeing her picture also saddens me. I can’t fathom anyone ever wanting to shut out the light that radiated from her precious soul. She was such a joy to the world. I had no idea she was in Jonestown. All these years, I had assumed she moved to another home after the Bogues went to Jonestown. I would think of her every now and then, and wonder what had become of her. It saddens me to see her here, to know I was wrong.<\/p>\n

I shall always remember her for her smile, her laughter, and her awesome innocence. I’m smiling as I write this because I can still remember her dance…<\/p>\n

Rest in heaven my friend…<\/p>\n

(Glenda Randolph Bates was the sister of Darlene Ramey, who died in Jonestown.\u00a0<\/em>Her articles\u00a0for this site appear\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a><\/em>. She died on March 29, 2022 from pancreatic cancer.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw Cynthia’s picture today. Just the single photo brings back such mixed emotions. I feel joy seeing her face because it reminds me of the first time I met her. It was in the 70’s at the Bogue home. The Bogues were my legal guardians, and I shared a room with their youngest daughter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":102488,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-100990","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100990"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114142,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100990\/revisions\/114142"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}