SPRING CITY — I was making pies in my kitchen when the phone rang. The Director of Media for Ballet West, Dana Rimington, phoned to break the news.

“Thank you so much for the lovely article you wrote today about our costume designer, Cindy Farrimond.  I’m so sorry to tell you this, but she died suddenly last night. We’re so grateful that she was recognized so beautifully by The Pyramid. She is utterly irreplaceable and everyone is just in shock.”

Cindy Farrimond had developed a sudden illness and passed away just days before the opening of Ballet West’s 2025 “The Nutcracker” at the Capitol Theatre. Over 300 performers would be wardrobed in her beautiful costuming for the much-loved December family shows. Uncannily, the beloved annual Ballet West “Nutcracker” would be Cindy’s last dance.

The weekend following the Farrimond’s family Thanksgiving, Cindy was at home and suddenly didn’t feel well.  She called out to her husband Jim that she needed to go to the emergency room at once.  Despite all efforts by surgeons, they could not save the brilliant 66-year old grandmother, an enormous talent in America’s ballet.

Cindy Farrimond gave over forty years of her life to Ballet West.  So cherished are her beautifully-crafted costumes, that one is enshrined at the University of Utah.  The theater department was in the process of trying to lure Cindy to teach costuming at the university just to insure that her rare skills would be passed on to the next generation. Cindy died before she could accept.

In a rare honor, Ballet West decided that Cindy Farrimond’s memorial would be held at the Capitol Theatre.  The place where she had spent over forty years lining frocks with jewels and braids and carefully fitting hundreds of tiny-waisted dancers. On Dec. 15, her friends, family and members of the ballet company took seats beside one another, serenaded not by classic strains of ballet music, but country music tunes like “Don’t You Worry About Me” and “Somebody’s Hero.”

In an effort to finish this tender story I attended the service. I watched tearful Ballet West dancers take the stage.  Not to perform, but to pour their hearts out about Farrimond. One by one, the dancers stood and expressed how she had not only made them feel beautiful in performance, truly cared about each of them.   She was heralded for “teaching each dancer important lessons about life” while working rapidly to squeeze them into their costumes.

“We have learned so much from Cindy.  Not just as dancers, but as people.  Even when we became mothers she was full of good advice,” shared dancer Jenna Rae Herrera, who spoke while holding her young child.

“Every costume she made, was made more beautiful because she touched it,” said Cati Snarr. “We always felt so…taken care of.”

One of Cindy’s colleagues remembered arriving at the dance company as a young seamstress and watching Farrimond work through a stack of twenty-six separate bodices on her lightning-quick sewing machine. “I knew instantly that’s who I wanted to be.  HER.”

Let’s be honest, many successful stage professionals struggle to leave a trail of family love behind them, but in Cindy Farrimond’s case, she did:

“My mother never worked for recognition.  She worked for her family,” shared her daughter, Brittany Farrimond  “You all were her “people.” Making dancers feel beautiful was her passion.  But she loved nothing in life more than her family.  Her parents. Her grandchildren.  Her childhood sweetheart, Jim.”

It just as clear that one needn’t be part of the family to receive Cindy’s kindness.  In the velvet seats of the Capitol Theatre tales were told of how she often shared her scarves or pieces of her lunch with the homeless in downtown Salt Lake. When she could, Cindy would scrape together a little money for the needy she found trying to stay warm against the walls of the Capitol Theatre.

Just a few weeks before her death, I knocked on the Farrimond’s Spring City front door with an invitation to a community event.  Cindy decided to answer even though she was swamped with sewing.  She welcomed me inside her simple, warm and inviting home.  Her front room was full of fairy dresses.  I’m not kidding.  A rack, full of beautiful blue fairy dresses.  So unexpected was it in the middle of a small Utah farm town, that I was dying to know why.  She casually shared that she sewed costumes for Ballet West but explained  that the beautiful dresses before me were for a special Salt Lake high school production.

Truthfully, Liquid Thread is the only thing I know about sewing.  But as I admired Cindy’s amazing creations, even I could see stunning talent in every inch of her work.

After raising three children, Jim and Cindy Farrimond fulfilled their dream to live full-time in the historic town of Spring City in Sanpete County.  Cindy and Jim Farrimond were childhood sweethearts and her greatest memories were of growing up spending every summer and every weekend in Spring City.

The last text I received from Cindy Farrimond was not full of details about her career or even important details about Ballet West.  Instead, she asked if I could mention her grandparents, David and Mary Sorensen, in the article I was writing about her career.

“We were such a close family and starting in 1903, my grandparents raised eight children in a small pioneer house on 400 North in Spring City. Could you include that?”

I wouldn’t dream of leaving it out.

In the short time I knew her, I learned what set Cindy Farrimond apart was not just her national reputation, but her heart. Cindy Lee Farrimond was laid to rest Friday, Dec. 19, in the tiny Spring City cemetery, far from applause and stage lights, but surrounded by the ancient graves of pioneers and her beloved grandparents and parents.

One can learn much in pondering Cindy Farrimond’s farewell.

She was the picture of dedication to her craft.  Driving two hours each way from Spring City to downtown Salt Lake for six long years so she could care for elderly parents while keeping the trust with all who depended upon her at Ballet West.  She was deeply proud of her work in the ballet and serving as head of the distinguished company’s costume department.

Even so, the title Cindy Farrimond cherished most was not from the theater.  What she treasured was being a wife, a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

Her true devotion was to her family.

It is an example for all of us to ponder this holiday season and in the coming new year.