DRESDEN, Maine — Cyndi MacMaster was the kind of woman who knew what had to be done today to ensure a better tomorrow.
With young children at home and a husband working three jobs, she trained to sell real estate, then earned her bachelor’s degree in social work. For a time in 2009, when her husband, Scott MacMaster, switched from being the Greenville police chief to being the Richmond police chief, she and their three children stayed behind in Greenville until the family could relocate. She fed herself and her family organic foods, went jogging most days and made sure their three sons kept their rooms clean.
“I just thought she was like any other mom,” said 12-year-old Jake MacMaster on Christmas Eve as his father sat in the family’s dining room and told his wife’s story to the Bangor Daily News. “Now that you’re talking about this, I’m realizing she really was an amazing person.”
“She sure was,” Scott MacMaster said to his eldest son, both brushing away a tear.
Cyndi MacMaster, 36, died on Dec. 19, just weeks after a cancer diagnosis.
Even in her final days, she was able to look past death’s cruel face to the future. She filled out 13 years of birthday cards for Jake and her other two boys, 7-year-old Parker and 5-year-old Tripp. She recorded audio books for the younger boys and filled out high school graduation cards for all three. She even bought each boy a card for his wedding and sealed her love inside envelopes that will be yellowed and brittle by the time they’re opened.
It was Cyndi’s second bout with cancer. Three years ago she survived cervical cancer with radiation and chemotherapy. Scott said they realized then that the cliches about such events are true and determined to live every moment to its fullest. That made the past two years their best.
They took the boys to Jay Peak in Vermont and Story Land in New Hampshire, spent days fishing and packed in as many camping trips as they could. They often loaded up the car and took long drives all over Maine, with no particular destination. Last winter, with the snow piled up, the whole family jumped off their second-story deck.
“We definitely lived in the moment,” said Scott.
He met Cyndi at an Augusta bar called Mustang Sally’s and later that night took her to a wee-hours breakfast at Denny’s, where they both had two eggs over easy, home fries and toast. They married on May 19, 2001, in the chapel in front of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro.
In late September of this year, Cyndi began to notice that she was tired in the afternoons. She went through a range of medical tests but at first no one suspected a second bout with cancer because she already had been declared cancer-free. On the day before Thanksgiving, doctors still were thinking maybe she needed to have her gallbladder removed or an extended battle with the flu, but then the bad news struck.
They asked a doctor what Cyndi’s chances were and he said, “sometimes people win the lottery.”
“You start to think that somehow you made God mad,” said Scott. “You question the choices you’ve made, your lifestyle and your eating habits. Then you get to the point where you say, ‘OK, this is just a hill that you have to get to the top of.’”
News of Cyndi’s illness spread quickly. Scott’s sister set up an online support forum to help the family with medical bills, which in just over three weeks attracted more than $49,000 in donations.
Scott said the money helped, but the comments people wrote on the website — ‘I remember when Cyndi helped me do this’ or ‘I remember when Scott helped me do that’ — were better. There were stretches when the three boys were refreshing the site every five minutes.
“Watching the comments come in, that was just such a wonderful gift,” he said. “We used it as a lesson for the boys about kindness.”
The MacMaster boys received many of their Christmas gifts early, before Cyndi died at 2:30 a.m. Friday, with Scott by her side.
Jake gave his mother a necklace with a red heart enclosed in a golden one.
“She said she thought it was beautiful,” he said.
Scott MacMaster said he broke the news to his sons by telling them they were unlucky and lucky at the same time.
“I told them, ‘In a way you’re lucky because today you guys got your own guardian angel,’” he said. “If we think about her, she’ll always hear us.”
On Tuesday, the MacMasters were driving home with Cyndi’s ashes. In a tree on their lawn sat a snowy owl, the first they had ever seen on their property. It stayed long enough for them to retrieve a camera and take a picture before it flew away.
“He was giving us a message that she was fine and having fun and watching us,” said Parker.
“He was really big,” chimed in young Tripp.
A celebration of Cyndi MacMaster’s life will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Augusta Lodge of Elks at 397 Civic Center Drive. Contributions for a college fund for the MacMaster children may be made to the Maine Rural Water Association, where Cyndi worked, 254 Alexander Reed Road, Richmond, ME 04537. In lieu of flowers, the MacMaster family requests donations be made to the Hanson Family Relief Fund at www.gofundme.com/j2cjxo.
