Obituary of Cynthia Ciani Anderson

Cynthia Ciani Anderson, 77, died peacefully in Sussman House hospice hospital, Rockport, Maine, on January 1, 2025.  She is survived by her husband, Eric; daughters Ruth Lang (Zurich, Switzerland) and Jane Anderson (Belfast, Maine); grandchildren Juan, Xavier, Ana Luisa, and Beatriz Lang (Zurich, Switzerland); sisters Mary Ciani Saslow (College Station, TX), Judith Ciani Smith (Inverness, CA), Suzanne Ciani (Bolinas, CA), and Ruth Ciani Brower (Cambridge, MA). She was predeceased by her parents and brother Louis.

Cynthia grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, the fourth of six children of Ruth Bowman Ciani and Dr.  A Walter Ciani. She graduated from Thayer Academy, Braintree, Mass. and Mount Holyoke College as an English major. She subsequently earned a Master’s degree in physical education from the University of Rhode Island.

In 1978, she married the love of her life, Eric Lars Anderson, and designed and contracted the house in Rhode Island where she and Eric raised their two daughters. She went on to study architecture at Rhode Island School of Design and Boston Architectural Center.

She led a Girl Scout troop, served as a Girl Scout Trainer; taught yoga; and took up figure skating and ice dancing with Eric as her dancing partner. She played and coached 32 seasons of recreational league women’s softball—including one season on chemo for breast cancer.

Her favorite book was War and Peace, which she read five times. She loved the English language. She played an intense game of Scrabble and was devoted to the NYTimes word puzzles. She and Eric moved to Belfast Cohousing and Ecovillage in 2013. She was a founding member of the Wheelbarrow poetry table in Belfast, and published a book of her poetry, Skywatcher.

She craved honest and genuine connection—this was everything to her. She stated her life’s goal “Do the things I love and share them with others.” This credo was manifest in all she did.
For years she supervised and played in a winter basketball program for young men from the projects.  In summer they played street ball. She conceived this program and made it work when no one else could. They learned that she loved them.

Cynthia did everything with deep awareness and purposefulness, always uncompromising and true to herself.  Services will be held at 10am on February 11, 2025 at the UU Church of Belfast.  All are welcome to attend.

Memories and condolences may be shared on her tribute wall.