Cindy Weatherly on 20 Years at Robinson & Henry

“I began working for Michael A. Robinson, PC, on April 21, 2003. Julie Robinson was a good friend of mine through our daughters going to school and cheering together. I started working as a Paralegal.

“To back up just a little, I graduated from Roanoke College with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting. I’ve had three jobs in my career that I genuinely love. The first was working at APB Whiting Oil Company, where I ran the company’s home office of the Stop in Food Stores chain (kind of like 7-Eleven stores). My second job was working for the United Health Services Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia. I prepared budgets for the 19 clinical departments at the University of Virginia. And then came Robinson & Henry, PC (or Michael A. Robinson, PC.)

Since my true calling was to work with numbers, I let Julie and Mike know that I would not continue as a Paralegal because I wanted to work in the accounting field. Julie jumped at the chance to change roles with me as she didn’t like the accounting world. Problem solved. Speed forward almost 20 years, and I am now the Accounting and Human Resources Director.”

Well, we’ve come a long way. The start was in a small interior office suite in the Meadows Crossing Building with three employees. It had two offices, a reception room, and a conference room. No windows! Now we have two rather large suites at this same Meadows Crossing building, along with seven other offices in Colorado. I do not see a stop in sight. We will also be branching out into Texas. It is an exciting time.

With the addition of Bill Henry and Don Eby in the mix, I’d have to say I’m not at all surprised. I will be more surprised if it’s not double that size by the next 10 years (or sooner).

As stated earlier, I love accounting and working with numbers. My second love is photography, and I’ve used that skill here at R&H.

Many of you already know that I took pictures throughout the office of the court buildings.

The main reason that has kept me here all these years is that I have been allowed to shape my department as we’ve grown. Upper management listens and lets me make many decisions, which is very fulfilling to me.

Usually, I’d say I enjoy spending my time doing things with my kids. My kids are grown and have all flown the coup; I’ve had to find other things and interests as an empty nester. One of the best things is getting to know my husband again, Gray Weatherly. As the kids grew up, we’d split our time, ensuring they got to do what interested them. You tend to lose yourself trying to keep your kids engaged and making a living (or at least I did.) But now that is all changing.

I do still love going to visit my adult kids. One of my favorite things is to visit California and stay with my daughter in Santa Monica. I enjoy walking down to the pier, watching people, listening to my music, and just walking, walking, walking.

Now that not all our money is being spent on the kids, we are working on house projects, lots and lots of house projects.

I tried reading books on a Kindle, but there is something extraordinary about holding that book in my hand and flipping the pages. I am reading a book by W. Bruce Cameron called A Dog’s Way Home. It is about how a dog gets separated from its owner in (of all places) the Colorado wilderness and the trials and tribulations this dog goes through to make it back home. It’s one of those books that is happy, sad, and heartfelt. I can relate to how I see a dog’s loyalty and love for its person. Pretty amazing.

Those of you that know me know I love animals. One of my favorite quotes is, “Some of my best friends have never said a word to me.” This is true. In addition to dogs (currently four golden retrievers), I’ve owned a horse, cats, ferrets, fish, hamsters, and an alligator!

Believe it or not, we’d take a vacation every year to Florida when I was very young. One of my favorite things was to visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm where they (and my parents!) would let you buy an alligator. This is now against the law; go figure!

I like to think about my life as not one “most” adventurous thing but an assortment of adventures. Here is a couple:

I used to ride my horse (Santon) in the mountains in Boones Mill, Virginia. I once rode up on a steel mill. It was tranquil and eerie. After watching many moonshine shows, I had now come to realize that I probably had eyes on me by someone ready to jump out of the bush and protect their mill. I also once rode my horse into the middle of a high-speed police chase. The police weren’t happy with me.

This is a big adventure. I took my daughter to Florida for her high school graduation. We would have a grand time retracing some of the attractions I used to do as a child. One of which was to visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. Because I wanted to make sure Rachael had a great time, we decided to go over to get our picture taken with an alligator. Lo and behold, they offered extreme photos with a full-grown 600-pound alligator.

To make a long story short, we decided to do it. We ended up having two 600-pound alligators (a first for the alligator farm) make our acquaintance. Their names were Fluffy and Chip. We were told not to say their names when we were with them because they recognized their name and advanced toward us!

This was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. When I told my husband, he asked if he needed to get more life insurance out on me. Ha-ha, I had also sent this picture to Bill Henry, and he commented that maybe I shouldn’t do that because R&H needs their Accountant!

Below is a picture of Fluffy, Chip, me, and Rachael.