thoughts of a candy wrapper crane

shared by Marlo R. Beall, her sister

Towards the end of our meal, while having lunch at one of our favorite sushi places this past week, my daughter Cynthia made this origami crane out of a lollipop wrapper. When she showed it to me, I smiled and told her, "That's just like something your Tita Cyn would do."

thoughts of ohana

shared by Marlo R. Beall and VJ Rabuy, her sisters

"This is Scrump. I made her, but her head is too big.

So I pretend a bug laid eggs in her ears, and she's upset because she only has a few more days to..."

This is how Lilo introduces Scrump in the movie Lilo and Stitch, and this is a photo of Cyn's Scrump doll.

Although we can't recall who gave it to Cyn, Scrump has always been a special part of the family.

We both remember when Cyn talked about her plans to re-create her own Scrump doll. Given her skill in arts and crafts, this was no surprise. She would start by using a Birkenstock brand sock of VJ's, that was just the right color for Scrump's body, and go from there.

Oh, and if you look closely, you can see the surgically repaired strand of Scrump's yellow "hair". That was a result of the hair strand breaking when VJ was playing with her. VJ had grabbed Scrump by the longest of her seven strands of hair, and proceeded to spin her around. Soon, Scrump was on the floor while a piece of one of the strands of hair remained in VJ's hand.

After Cyn passed away, Scrump became even more meaningful to all of us. VJ held it with her during Cyn's funeral service. She recalls how, at one point during the service, she and our cousin R.J. were playing with Scrump as we were singing one of the hymns. While VJ tickled Scrump's belly, R.J. proceeded to make Scrump's head wiggle back and forth as if she were laughing. Fortunately, they both managed to keep themselves from laughing out loud.

When Andrew and Marlo moved from Culver City to Union City, they were sure to continue to take good care of Scrump. She even had a significant role in the birth of each of their girls. Since Scrump is somewhat of a bean bag doll, she made a perfect squeeze toy during labor. And having Scrump with them helped strengthen the overall feeling of Cyn's spirit in the delivery room.

Today, Scrump resides in Cyn Cyn and Ava's room, and they truly appreciate how special she is.

thoughts of first impressions and football cleats

shared by Kyle Roman, her friend from high school

Our Freshman year in high school, before I met Cyn, all I heard from people was, “Cynthia Rabuy... blah, blah, blah...” I was like, “Who is this person and why is everyone talking about her like she was a queen?!” Finally, a couple weeks into the school year, Jeff Silva had borrowed my cleats for football practice and gave them to Cyn to give back to me. Now I had to go meet this queen in her Spanish class.

I hurried over a few minutes before class started, so as to not make a scene or interrupt. I saw a friend in there and asked where Cynthia Rabuy is. He pointed towards the front of the class and I approached. I said, "Hey, are you Cynthia?" She responded, "Oh, hi Kyle!” I felt as if I was a star because she had known who I was already.

She said nice to meet you and here are your cleats. This sweet, clean, cute and brilliant young lady, with her bare hands, handed over my dirty, smelly, muddy cleats!!! I knew from then on that this girl was a cut above the rest. She was different and better in many ways.

That was the moment that I met her, and I cherish that memory as reflective of the amazing person that she is to all of us. She is someone who I really value as a true friend and angel up above. There are so many memories with me and her that burn in my mind and that I can recall instantly.

Just as a general theme, I look back on conversations and have determined that she believed in me more than I did in myself back then. She was always seeking my opinion and approval on her thoughts, and was always telling me how smart I was. It was the first time someone other than my parents did that, and that was and is special to me going forward in my life.

Most of the time when people pass, we tend to embellish a lot of what they did. There is no way to embellish with Cyn. She was and is the brilliant, caring and beautiful person that we talk about. I still miss my friend very much. I am pouring tears as I write this. But they have turned to tears of joy because I have many memories to turn to.