thoughts of chasing lost dogs

shared by Arlene Rabuy, her sister

In the summer of 1998, Cyn and Linh bought a black and white Siberian Husky from a breeder. His official name was Nanook of the Aurora Borealis, but we just called him Nanook; and he was Cyn's dog. When Cyn left for college, I took over caring for Nanook.

He was a happy dog that loved people, especially kids. I thought he had run away one day, but I eventually found him walking with a kid to his bus stop the next morning. He was a little mischievous too, evidenced by a couple of trips I had to make to animal services to bail him out. He was a true people dog with a free spirit... not unlike his "mom".

Nanook left us in February of 2004. I'm guessing that these days, he can be found happily frolicking around somewhere with Cyn.

thoughts of skills with flowers

shared by VJ Rabuy, her sister

Cyn was talented at a lot of things. She could braid hair beautifully, and the team of Cyn and Linh could cook up one mean lasagna. One of her talents that was probably less shined upon was her skill with flower arrangement.

For my high school graduation in June of 2000, I wanted a crown of flowers to adorn my graduation cap, just as I had seen on one of the graduates at Carla's UCLA graduation the year prior. I wasn't sure how to put one together, so Cyn got about 50 or 60 rose buds in my school colors -- yellow roses for gold and sterling roses for purple -- and made me the most beautiful and unique 'crown' of flowers.

That same weekend, Cyn and I flew together to LA for Marlo's second graduation from UCLA, this time for her Master's degree. Cyn waited to travel with me, instead of going with the family the day before, so I could attend my Grad Nite. Our flight was super early in the morning and I remember we each had two dozen roses for our carry-on item. I'm sure that Cyn put together some nice arrangements when we made it to LA.