Cindy Davis thought Roy Fields was good-looking, but she never expected their relationship to last.
"Nobody did," she laughs.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “I didn’t think I was seeing my future spouse.”
He says: “I liked the way she looked.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I was nervous, happy, excited and scared — just a bunch of different emotions.”
He says: “I was happy.”
My advice for a long happy marriage:
She says: “You’ve really go to work at it.”
He says: “Communicate and work at it.”
Cindy lived next door to Roy and his family in Hot Springs for years, even dating his older brother briefly before he moved to California.
They were friends, just chatting when they saw each other until they got to know each other better when Roy started coming over on occasion to babysit for Cindy's two children from a previous relationship.
"The kids liked him," Cindy says. "That was 30 years ago, in 1989. He was a wild little thing," she says. "He was a good-looking kid, I thought. He was always really kindhearted. But I never expected Roy and me to be together. I really, really didn't."
Cindy had developed a crush on Roy but says she thought at 19 he was too young for her -- she's 13 years older than he is -- and brushed off any romantic feelings. Roy had a crush on her, too, but he had some of the same thoughts.
They started spending time together, and their feelings for each other deepened. But because of their age difference, they were initially reluctant to show the world how they felt about each other.
"We were trying to sneak around because we didn't want people to know about us yet," Cindy says. "We just weren't sure what people would think about us being together."
In a small town, though, secrets are tough to keep.
"You always get caught," she says. "People are always going to find out. But that was OK."
Everyone just thought their relationship would be fleeting, over in a flash, and therefore not worth anyone's ire.
One of their first dates was to Bonanza Steakhouse in Hot Springs, though they can't remember if that was their first official date.
"That's when we first started going out anyway," Cindy says. "I remember he cut up my steak for me that night. I had tried to cut my steak when I was out sometime before and it kind of flew off the plate so I was afraid to cut it up in front of him that night and he offered to do it for me."
His thoughtfulness didn't go unnoticed. It just reinforced Cindy's belief that he was kindhearted.
Once their relationship was in full swing, they sometimes took road trips together to places like Branson, the beach, Tunica and more.
"We fell in love," she says. "I sure didn't expect that to happen, but it did. But I had to wait for him to grow up a little bit and settle down."
Roy and Cindy dated for six years before he proposed to her on at the peak of West Mountain in Hot Springs.
"I think she might have been expecting a proposal sometime, but I did surprise her," Roy says.
Their neighbor was on a date with his girlfriend at West Mountain at the moment Roy asked Cindy to marry him, and he caught their special moment on video.
"We didn't know he was watching, but he was laughing the whole time," Roy says. "It is a neat video to have."
They were married almost a year later on Dec. 28, 1996, at Riverview Paradise Inn and Resort in Hot Springs.
"It was all decorated with red and green and white," Cindy says. "It was beautiful. I had picked that date right after Christmas because I liked the colors and I knew it would be easy to decorate."
They floated through that day, finding it hard to believe it was finally happening, Cindy in a formal white gown and Roy in a white suit.
After their nuptials, they left for a honeymoon in Branson.
They don't live in the neighborhood where they met anymore, having moved to Mountain Pine not long after they were married, renting a house for a while before buying one of their own.
Cindy's daughter, Christy Huff, died 10 years ago from cancer. Her son, Bradley Davis, lives next door to them. Roy's daughter, Kelly Spradling, died in an accident last year. They also have nine grandchildren.
They leaned on each other to get through their grief, and their relationship came out stronger for it.
"You've got to work at marriage," Cindy says. "We've had our ups and downs, but we work at it. And it's so worth it. It really is."
Cindy works for the Jessieville School District. Roy is a welder in North Little Rock.
They usually go on a trip for their anniversary, but this year they stayed close to home.
"We're doing some remodeling," Cindy says, "so we didn't go anywhere. Maybe we will later."
This year marked their 23rd wedding anniversary -- and their 30th year of being together.
"It sure doesn't feel like it's been 30 years. I can't believe it. I mean, you know, it's kind of shocking to me sometimes I think about how [did] we last [this long]," says Cindy with a laugh. "I mean, even we didn't think we would last. We surprised everyone -- even ourselves. I'm sure glad we did."
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High Profile on 01/19/2020