Help Cynthia and Simon Recover After The Eaton Fire

To Friends and Supporters,

My name is Jan Hetherington and I have known Cynthia Bassham for almost 40 years and Simon Vance since 1998 when they fell in love during a stage production of 'Betrayal'. Cynthia worked with me in the Bay Area and they were neighbors for several years. We've attended each other's weddings, watched their kids grow. They are very dear to my husband and me - and as strong as I know they are, this is not a life event from which they will easily recover.

Both Cynthia and Simon use their ‘voices’ - Cynthia as a well-respected teacher of Voice, Speech and Acting, and Simon as an award-winning audiobook narrator (he also lost his home recording studio in the fire).

While I am the organiser for this page Simon has contributed an introduction and offered some photographs ... so I’m happy to allow his voice to take over here – I’ll add some personal notes at the end:

Cynthia and Simon: Recovering our lives after the Eaton Fire

In the immediate aftermath of this devastating fire I was certain we wouldn’t ever be doing this! I still feel I should apologize now for putting this in front of you.

But we’re learning that this is a way for us to acknowledge and accept the love that you have for us.

Introduction

During the night of January 7th/8th, 2025, we lost our house in the Eaton fire that consumed our beloved Altadena, situated in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

We managed to visit our street two days after the fire, and we were shocked to find not only that the house (originally built in 1905!) but also my recently built studio (2020) were little more than ashes. So many experiences, so much history, now lost to the (wrong kind of) cloud storage...

We escaped with our lives, our two cats, our cars, and very few belongings (and not any of the ones we really should have grabbed had brains been working). Our house was right in the middle of it all . But while the physical structures across the entire neighborhood are destroyed, there is something remaining still…and although long term decisions are down the road a bit we still want to be a part of this (as the NYT called it a few days ago) ‘hidden gem’ of LA County.

What is the purpose of this fundraiser?

The realization has dawned that, despite insurance, there’s so much more lost than we could ever have imagined, so much that can never be replaced… (maybe some things that shouldn’t be replaced!) - and there is our very well-being…

In the sad company of thousands of fellow Altadenans, we’ve suffered a major trauma.

So…

We’ll provide more details/photos/videos about ourselves and how our lives were, and perhaps some explanation of what happened to us that evening and how it all looks now, but it’s going to take a few days to fill those stories out - it’s extraordinary how busy we both are with ‘stuff’ as a result of this loss and we both still have to do our jobs – and, to be honest, it’s hard to be reliving this right now.

But we need to get this up and running since we’ve been asked by so many to provide a place, a way, to support us - and here it is...

We want to be healed… and with your help we know we will be, whether or not you actually commit to anything on this page. We love you, as we know you love us.

We moved into this diverse neighborhood in April 2017 and immediately felt 'at home' - this photo, taken that September, was our first Christmas card from there.

Oh, we so loved that house.

This is Jan back again:

We have been welcomed into Cynthia and Simon's home many times and never did I think, despite being so close to some glorious trails into the San Gabriels, that such urban areas lived under this kind of risk.

The human voice is often used as a tool in healing, and in recovering from the enormity of this tragedy they’ll need to bring all of their resources to bear – on themselves.

With love to two of the finest people I know – Cynthia & Simon