thoughts of homemade yahtzee

shared by VJ Rabuy, her sister

During the last few weeks, I have been honored to attend several children's birthday celebrations. So it sparked a memory of a birthday party I attended in elementary school.

The party was for my friend Christine Francis in the first or second grade. It was fun to see my friends outside of school, and to take part in games, and eat cake. But the thing I remember the most about that day was playing Yahtzee.

I had never played before, and this particular set that Christine had was the Mickey and Friends Disney Edition. So when I got home, I could not stop thinking about Mickey Yahtzee. I had so much fun playing, and I wanted to play again.

You had to roll all kinds of combinations of Mickeys, the more Mickeys the better. And after that, the rolls were for Donalds, Minnies, Daisys and so forth. Five Mickeys was the best.

So before the weekend’s end, Cyn had created my very own Disney Yahtzee. It was impressive because she had constructed each die, making the cube out of yellow graph paper and drawing the corresponding Mickey friend on each face of the die.

She made all five dice and whatever else. Other than the weight, the dice were spot on. She played with me, she really made the game for me; and it was all made possible by Cyn’s prowess for seeing something and knowing, “yeah, I could make that.”

thoughts of Nanook of the Aurora Borealis

shared by VJ Rabuy, her sister

The summer after high school graduation, Cyn and Linh got a dog. They named him Nanook of the Aurora Borealis, a pure breed Siberian Husky with distinctive “mask” face markings and ice-blue eyes.

Arlene has talked about him before. He was super cute, immensely playful; he loved being around people and would often walk himself when I or Arlene were unable to walk him.

I remember when Nanook was still a puppy, our neighbor and good friend, Josh Chow, would get on his rollerblades and walk Nanook. Cyn would trade off with Josh every other block and I would follow behind on foot with our family dog, Freckles.

I remember that first summer with Nanook was memorable since he was so curious, and it was fun to watch him grow bigger. Although he was mischievous, he was so sweet and loving it was hard to be mad at him.

When Nanook died in February of 2004, it was heartbreaking. But, olddly enough, it was a comfort to know that all dogs go to heaven. I am sure Cyn was happy to see her dog again.

thoughts of random balloons

shared by Arlene Rabuy, her sister

While we were growing up, we owned a helium tank and kept it in the garage at home. So we could blow up balloons any time we wanted. We would make balloon arches (sometimes reluctantly), and would bring balloons to events or special occasions.

For whatever reason, one vivid memory I have of Cyn is of her blowing up balloons for a party. She was also good at making the arches, which isn't surprising given her talent with arts and crafts.

During one of Cyn’s memorial services, a random balloon stealthily entered the church. For some reason, when I noticed it floating quietly, it felt like Cyn had sent it. From that day on, whenever I see a random balloon flying in the sky, I'm reminded of Cyn and can't help but smile.