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| | | Always at home | | March 27, 2009 | | | | Voice Correspondent | | Finishing a spouse’s sentences is an almost inevitable byproduct of a long-term marriage. When Mike and Judy Canning sit down to speak in their Eastern Market home, their communication is almost telepathic, an utterly natural give and take where one completing the other’s thoughts. And the regard they feel as true and equal partners is clear as they recount a remarkable life together, and a shared love of the community they’ve cherished for over 40 years.
As a junior Foreign Service officer in the 1960s, Mike Canning was a bit of a standout, choosing to buy a home in D.C. when most of his well-traveled co-workers deferred homeownership, or bought in the Virginia suburbs. Almost immediately, the Cannings discovered a small-town sense of investment that bonded Hill residents. Along with other young parents, the Cannings came to form and rely on a semiformal babysitting cooperative, a model that seems almost quaint in these nanny-bound times.
“It was a phenomenal community,” Mike recalls. “A very American enterprise of people almost by osmosis or serendipity agreeing to risk their kids with other people, basically sight unseen. Totally cooperative, no money exchanged, these little kids, it was amazing.”
“That was the early days,” Judy rejoins. “A lot of those people moved away, but occasionally we’ll bump into someone. There are acquaintances we’ve had for decades.”
The Cannings’ deeply felt sense of inclusion is all the more remarkable because their family spent so much time away from the Hill. Over the course of 20 years, Mike’s career took them to far-flung, often exotic locales: Nicaragua, Peru, Uganda, Kenya, Iran, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. But he also enjoyed a number of assignments stateside, which others in the field would see as a penalty.
“We were always just so excited when we were coming back,” Judy says. “Every time I heard Mike’s assignment was Washington, I thought, ‘Yay!’ Because we had a home to come back to; most of his friends hated it.”
The love of the Hill amplified when Mike retired in 1993. “The retirement was really a tipping point,” he reflects. “I didn’t have to go overseas anymore, and we automatically assumed a focus on the neighborhood that we didn’t have before, that we couldn’t have before. Knowing that we already loved our neighborhood, but we didn’t know how fecund it was. Our volunteer activity kicked in then.”
Those activities reflect the diversity of the Cannings’ interests and the richness of the community’s ties. Judy redoubled her involvement with the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, where her daughters had taken classes. Mike became a driving force behind Films on The Hill, feeding his great passion for cinema. Both participated in a Meals On Wheels program for over a decade.
And both point with well-earned pride to their deep involvement with Capitol Hill Village, a volunteer-driven cooperative, conceived to help aging members of the community live independently in their own homes. The Cannings both were founding members of the board, and remain active in Village operations.
In April, Mike and Judy Canning will be honored by the Capitol Hill Community Foundation as recipients of the 26th annual Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards. It’s a token on recognition for a couple whose hearts have been on the Hill no matter where they roamed, a shared affection best summed up in one of the Cannings’ signature exchanges:
Judy: Most of our friends in the Foreign Service, they didn’t know the city at all, we were just devoted to the city, so we came back, we were coming back not just to D.C. but to our house…
Mike: …and to the National Gallery, and the National Symphony, and the Arena Stage, and everything.
Judy: It was so exciting, every time we came back here…
Mike: …it still is home. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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