thoughts of hiding behind the drapes and reading underneath the stairs

shared by Ria R. Inciong, her aunt

I'm rarely at a loss for words, yet here I am not knowing how to start writing about my memories of Cindy.

 

My first, and probably funniest, memory of her was when she was just a little over one year old. Tito William and I were home with her. One minute we were all watching TV, the next 
Cindy was nowhere to be found. We searched all around the house and even outside, but no luck. So we both headed back home completely befuddled as to where she went, or worse, how would we explain this to my brother and sister-in-law. Then lo and behold from behind the drapes, a little girl with a big smile comes out.

 

Let me fast-forward to the times Randy and I spent with her. We were honored to be included in the X-Men club. Cindy and her cousins each had a designated X-Men character; she was Storm. Randy was dubbed as Cable and I as Psylocke. We'd call each other Saturday mornings to make sure we caught the latest episode of X-Men.

 

We'd also call each other Saturday mornings to make sure we caught High School Sports Focus whenever she was featured. Cindy lettered in 3 sports in High School: volleyball, basketball, and badminton. Aside from X-Men episodes, we looked forward to seeing her sports highlights.

 

We enjoyed spending time together outside of family functions. We watched "My Girl" with several other of her cousins. Poor Randy had to sit through the movie with all of us bawling our eyes out. He didn't learn his lesson though because years later he took us to watch "Miss Saigon" at the Orpheum. I can vividly picture Cindy's animated face reacting to all that was transpiring on stage, singing along, emoting, doing hand gestures. Our friend Emy played the lead character. After the show, we drove Emy back to where was staying. Cindy was the perfect blend of an admiring fan and a gentle critic. She was generous with her compliments to Emy but she did not hold back expressing her critique of that evening's performance.

 

I admired that about Cindy - her ability to express candid thoughts. She let me and Randy know her disappointment of not having her be one of our bridesmaids for our wedding. She was absolutely right; she was closer to us than her older siblings. We had no excuse for not picking her other than we went by age. Lucky for me and Randy, Cindy was forgiving, another quality of hers that I dearly admired. Despite her disappointment, she agreed to be an altar server for our ceremony. She even choreographed and performed a dance number at our reception.

 

Cindy and our daughter Zoe became best friends almost from the moment Zoe was born. We decorated Zoe's room with Looney Tunes characters. Cindy sewed pillows to match the decor. We still have those pillows. Zoe stayed at my mom's house while Randy and I were at work. We would often find Cindy playing with her when we picked her up. One specific memory was finding Cindy and Zoe reading underneath the stairs at my mom's house. The weeks before going to UCLA, they spent almost everyday together.

 

Cindy was a winter quarter transfer to UCLA. Her first months were tough. We spoke on the phone often. It was a challenge for her to adjust not just to the college atmosphere but to living with her two older sisters. It was one thing to live together at their parents' house, it was quite another to live together as college roommates. We encouraged her to hang on and promised to visit. Eventually, she found her niche and embraced the college experience. Her phone calls switched from talks about being homesick to talks about her different endeavors. She ventured into student politics and would often call to discuss the situation amongst the student groups.

 

We visited her once while in college. Zoe was completely rapt with The King and I at the time. Cindy sang along the songs from the movie and endured the numerous repetitions. Zoe was also into Pokemon. Cindy's creative side kicked into gear as she baked a clay Pokeball for Zoe. We feasted on Romano bread puffs from Numero Uno Pizzeria and stayed up late talking about anything, everything, and nothing.

 

I've been writing this for over two weeks but cannot seem to finish. But it is now Cindy's birthday so I think I need to wrap up and hit Send.

 

So let me end with my last vivid memory of Cindy. On several occasions, when driving home from LA, Cindy would stop at our house on Carmen Way first before heading to her parents' house. It was either her drive home for Thanksgiving or Christmas 2002, she called to tell us to wait up because she was coming. She wanted to meet our son Teo who was just born in October. I know that, like always, we spent Christmas together that year. But for some reason, the vision of her holding Teo is etched in my mind as the last time I saw her.