There was a night of thanksgiving, praise and reflections at St Paul AME Heritage Hall in Hamilton on Monday night for a very special person. She in actuality is the Rev Cynthia E Holmes, who “came home” to celebrate her 80th birthday.Cyntia was a daughter of the late Stankey McRee Bean, a renowned blacksmith whose shop was where the Bermuda Industrial Union’s headquarters building now stands on Union Square. His wife, Josephine E Bean, was the older sister of the Rev Eugenius Stowe, who operated a grocery on the border of Devonshire and Pembroke North, in addition to being an AME Pastor, particularly at Allen Temple,Somerset; Bethel; Heard Chapel and Vernon Temple AME Churches.Cynthia's siblings were former PLP Senator Q Charles Bean, Leroy, Lauretta and Dorothea, all of whom are deceased.The family lived on North Hill (above the railway tracks north of Friswell’s Hill). Cynthia attended Central School and the Berkeley Institute, where she later returned as Head of the school’s Home Economics Department after graduating from Howard University in Washington, DC. Some of her contemporaries were Dr Eva Hodgson, Rev Dr Erskine Simmons and Rev Dr Conway Simmons; Edwina Smith; and friends and former students included Eunice Jones, retired Principal of Gilbert Institute; Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews; and retired Permanent Secretary Ellen Kate Horton.Among Cynthia’s close friends, reflecting on the good old days of growing up in the area of St.Monica's Mission, before it became more nationally known as 42nd Street, were Rev Canon Thomas Nisbett; Mrs O’Rita Morris and retired educator Elizabeth Isaac. She served the latter ladies as maid of honour at their respective marriages.Cynthia’s early Christian experience and training was at St Monica'’ Mission and the nearby Heard Chapel AME Church. While studying at Howard she attended Ward Memorial AME Church in Washington, DC, where she is now on the church's ministerial staff. Upon completion of her teaching tenure in Bermuda she returned to the US and became the wife of Willis Holmes, who also is deceased. Two children were born of that union, daughter Eugenia and the late son Jay Holmes.Willis and Cynthia Holmes had a special place in their hearts for the many Bermudian students residing in the Washington, D.C. area particularly attending Howard University and Morgan Stage University. As a consequence the couple formed The Bermuda Oceanic Society that served them well over the decades.Master of Ceremonies at the big birthday bash Monday was Cynthia’s nephew, Quinton, son of late Senator Q Charles Bean, who in his own religious sphere is an outstanding member of the Salvation Army. Brothers Reuben and David Bean shared in the musical tributes to their aunt.Head table guests included the oldest member of the Bean clan, Mrs Louella Douglas, a nonegenarian and foremer educator of Sound View Road, Somerset; AME Presiding Elder, Rev Mrs Betty Furbert Woolridge; Mrs O’Rita Morris and husband George; and Dr Simmons.More than a dozen of Rev Cynthia’s friends and colleagues came to Bermuda from the Washington area to help her celebrate her 80th. Among them were an attorney, educator, detective and minister. Half of them were aboard the cruise ship Adventure of the Sea, which was one of the two liners with their hundreds of passengers at the Dockyard, that had to put to sea early Monday afternoon to ride out Hurricane Rafael that had been threating the islands over the weekend and bypassed us Monday night just as Cynthia’s party was getting in high gear.The Americans however were blessed with a belated reception when their liner returned to port a day later.