Sinka and Richard Thomas: A Life of Service, One Neighbor at a Time

If you spend enough time in the Northern Neck, you’ll start to notice certain names come up again and again.  At the store. On a school bus. In a classroom. At a county meeting.
And before long, you realize many of those moments trace back to the same two people: Sinka and Richard Thomas.

More often than not, those connections begin at Thomas Store—the familiar family owned and operated country store on History Land Highway that has become something of a landmark in Richmond County.  Thomas’ is a longtime local staple known for deli food, baked goods, and friendly service. But to those who know the Thomases, the store has always been about more than groceries, sandwiches, or a quick stop on the way to the river. It is a gathering place, a connector, and in many ways, an extension of the family itself.

Richard’s connection to the store runs all the way back to childhood. His mother opened Thomas Store in March of 1970, fulfilling a dream she had carried for years. Richard was just nine years old at the time, and in one way or another, he has been part of it ever since.

“I’ve been there ever since,” he said simply.

That sentence, like so much about Richard, carries more than it first appears to. Over the years, his role has changed with the needs of the store and the needs of the community. He has stocked shelves, helped customers, worked the farm, driven a school bus, served on the county Board of Supervisors, volunteered in countless ways, and become one of those rare people whose name is almost synonymous with the place he loves.

And beside him through it all has been his wife, Cynthia — though around here, almost no one calls her that.

The nickname “Sinka” began when a slightly older neighborhood boy couldn’t pronounce Cynthia when she was a baby. The name stuck, and all these years later, nearly everyone still knows her that way. In fact, generations of children have known her even more fondly as Nurse Sinka.

For 23 years, she has served as a school nurse at Richmond County Elementary School. Before that, she worked in hospital nursing, occupational health, family practice, and long-term care. Altogether, she has spent more than four decades in nursing — a calling she has lived out not only with skill, but with tenderness.

She is the kind of nurse who remembers that little things matter.

A child loses a tooth at school, and she finds a sweet little container to send it safely home for the tooth fairy. A frightened kindergartner comes in crying and missing his mother, and she walks him down to see his sibling so the day feels manageable again. Students call her Grandma. They tell her they love her. And she loves them right back with the kind of steady care that children remember long after they leave elementary school.

That same spirit of care shows up in both of their lives again and again.

Richard has driven a school bus for 46 years. He still lights up when former students recognize him in public and remind him that once upon a time, he was their bus driver. He has also served on the Richmond County Board of Supervisors since first winning election in 2009 for a term that began in 2010, where he now serves as vice chair. In that role, he helps oversee county decisions, budgets, ordinances, and the long, often unseen work of local government. 

But ask Richard what ties all those roles together, and the answer is simple: people.

Whether he is helping govern the county, driving a bus route, farming, or talking with customers at the store, he sees each role as another way to serve. Over the years, Thomas Store has put him in contact with everyone from lifelong locals to brand-new neighbors, and he has used that front-row seat to help connect people with what they need — a local contractor, a small business, a recommendation, a conversation, a meal, a little kindness.

He is especially passionate about supporting locally owned small businesses.

“You’ve got to shop local,” he said, “but it really should be shop local owned.”

That conviction says a lot about the Thomases. They care deeply about the people who live and work here, and they understand that strong communities are built by neighbors who keep showing up for one another.

That spirit of showing up is woven throughout their family story, too.

Richard and Sinka met as teenagers and dated for six years before marrying in 1983. This December, they will celebrate 43 years of marriage. Together they have raised two sons, built a life rooted in work and service, and welcomed grandchildren who are now part of the rhythm and joy of their days. The family’s work ethic is being carried on by their two boys who each have their own business–Richard has RT’s Midway Entertainment and David has T-Boys Lawncare–but the common thread is the same: hard work, family loyalty, and a willingness to do what needs to be done.

And “doing what needs to be done” has never been abstract for them.

There have been early mornings, late nights, missed holidays, emergency breakfasts cooked before dawn, and countless sacrifices that come with running a family business and serving a community at the same time. Richard is the first to say none of it would have been possible without the support of his family. Sinka, in turn, speaks matter-of-factly about stepping in wherever she is needed — at the store, on the farm, or behind the scenes — because that is simply what families do.

Thomas Store itself reflects that same ethic. The store opens early, closes late, and serves as far more than a convenience stop. The heart of the place is not what is sold there but what is shared there: conversation, trust, memory, familiarity, and the sense that someone knows your name when you walk in the door.

Over time, the store has grown into a genuine landmark. Richard says people will stop him in Richmond when they see his Thomas Store shirt and say they know exactly where it is — that it is the place where they meet family on the way to the river, or the stop they remember from years of coming to the Northern Neck.

That kind of recognition does not happen by accident. It is built over decades, one sandwich, one conversation, one favor, one early morning, one familiar face at a time.

When asked what they love most about life in the Northern Neck, both Richard and Sinka gave the same answer: the people.

That answer fits.

They love the way people still wave. They love the way neighbors help neighbors. They love the shared understanding that this region has its own culture, its own pace, its own way of life — and that those things are worth preserving. They speak honestly about change, but also with gratitude for the community that has shaped them and the opportunities this place has given their family.

Listening to them, it becomes clear that their story is not really about wearing many hats, though they certainly do. It is about faithfulness. It is about staying. It is about doing small things with great care over a very long stretch of time.

Near the end of the conversation, Sinka said something that seems to capture both of them well: “It’s the little things in life.”

That may be the best way to understand Sinka and Richard Thomas.

The little things are exactly what they have spent a lifetime doing well — caring for a child, helping a neighbor, opening the store, driving the route, making the meal, serving the county, loving their family, supporting the community, and trusting that all of it matters.

And in the Northern Neck, it does.

At Bay River Realty, we love telling the stories behind the places that make this region feel like home — and few stories reflect the heart of the Northern Neck more than this one.