Miatas bring Kathy and Mike Avillion together

Kathleen Alice Bell Daniel Avillion

May 23, 1957 - April 1, 2013

   

Kathy Avillion near Summit Point Motorsports Park.

It was Kathy’s Miata that brought her to meet her husband, Mike. 

    Kathy Daniel Avillion was a very accomplished dressage horseback riding instructor. She had studied with François Lemane DeFuffieu and was a protege´of Sally Swift, who created the Centered Riding program. With more than 25 years of experience, she was a renown instructor in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. riding community. Kathy herself embodied what Mazda calls Jinbai Ittai, the oneness between horse and rider. 

Kathy Avillion drapes a wedding veil behind her Miata in the paddock at VIR.

    She bought a Mazda Miata sports car and had it outfitted with a protective rollbar, racing harnesses and upgraded brakes. She joined the Mazda Sportscar Club of Washington. To learn how to drive better, she enrolled in a MazdaDrivers driving school at Virginia International Raceway. My old friend, Mike Avillion, another Miata driver, was assigned to her as an instructor. It must have been odd for the experienced instructor to herself be a student again. She must have enjoyed the lessons. Two years later to the day they were married under the track’s landmark century-old oak tree. 

    What is it about the Miata and true love? In 1991, my new bride, Joyce, surprised me with a brand-new Miata after our wedding ceremony. Mike Avillion, shot our wedding pictures as well as being in the wedding. On June 17, 2007, it was my turn to return the favor.

   

Mike and Kathy Avillion were wed under the Oak Tree at VIR during a driving school.

The folks at VIR were tickled that the couple wanted to marry there. Their memory was that this was only the second wedding at the track, which opened in 1957. We’d stage the couple’s Miatas in the South Course paddock and then park them under the oak tree during the lunch break. Kathy looked beautiful in her wedding dress and she decorated her car with a wedding veil. Mike donned a sport coat and tie.

   

Friends watch as the happy couple exchange wedding vows on the racing line.

The couple’s friends stood in the shade of the huge old oak as Kathy and Mike exchanged vows between their parked sports cars. With a long kiss, they began their marriage and posed for pictures. It was wonderful to see such happiness come to people you care for.

    They hopped into Mike’s “Malloy Mazda Bear Bottom Racing” Miata for a victory lap of the historic track. Pulling into the paddock, there was just time to share a few smiles, cut three cakes and don the purple (Kathy’s color) hats donated by Malloy Mazda to commemorate the wedding. Then, it was ties off, helmets bon and back to racing speed at the track. I always wondered if Mike student’s knew he was a groom that weekend.

   

Newlyweds Mike & Kathy Avillion take a victory lap of VIR's Grand Course.

That evening Kathy and Mike held their wedding reception in the VIR Plantation Manor. Friends celebrated with the couple and Kathy was given a riding crop to keep her new husband in line. 

    “It was Kathy’s dream,” said Mike of Kathy owning her own horse facility with an indoor riding area. They invested their life savings and in April 2008 opened for business. Alice, Kathy’s middle name, inspired the couple to name their equestrian center Cheshire Horse Hills. She drew a smiling horse to serve as a logo. Soon they were both boarding horses and Kathy was instructing students on their 22-acre property.

   

Mike and Kathy share a laugh at their wedding reception.

The workload was staggering. Mike, who knew nothing about horses, was now the facilities manager, taught by Kathy in proper equine care. She was the in-house instructor. They made far less than the minimum hourly wage, but ran Cheshire Hills together. Mike was very organized and Kathy had great people skills. We didn’t see him at the track very much. When they got a bit of help, they’d go out to dinner, or see a movie. It wasn’t very often.

    Here is where the storybook romance takes a tragic turn. Pain in Kathy’s tummy turned out to be ovarian cancer. There was little doctors could do following surgery. After a battle, Kathy returned from the hospital to be cared for at home by Mike and visiting hospice nurses.

    On April 1, 2013, Kathleen Alice Bell Daniel Avillion died at age 55.

    All of us recognize truly exceptional people. Kathy's fire burned brightly and she grabbed at life with both hands. She was brave, marrying for the second time at age 50, bought an open sports car and drove on a racetrack at full racing speeds and bet her life's savings on a dream. 

    She loved her daughter, Stephanie Daniel, her family, her faith, friends, students, horses great food and her Miata. And she loved her husband, Mike, and their Cheshire Hills.

    

A Celebration of Life ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. on April 27 at Cheshire Hills, 15104 Garner Road, Waldorf, Maryland, just 17 miles from the White House.

Photography by Bradley S. Pines - Please click on images to enlarge.

Please use these links to see more than 80 pictures from the Avillion wedding, read Kathy's story at Ride for Life, and link to their equestrian center's website.

Click here for a picture gallery of Kathy & Mike's wedding at VIR

Click here and scroll down to read Kathy's own words about ovarian cancer

Click to visit the Cheshire Hills website