by Shelby Parenteau

Although I can't really claim to have known Sinjin well I was fortunate enough to have several Sinjin encounters whether briefly at Christian's house (in which he wasted no time jumping in and teasing me right along with Taylor, Christian, and Bo even though he hardly knew me), talking with him on AIM while Christian was away, or at various other places. And even though the few encounters stand out vividly in my memory now, my Sinjin story is how much he affected my life after his death. I cannot see a male wearing a pink shirt without imagining Sinjin saying, "Only real men wear pink." I cannot see cheese puffs or twizliers without being reminded that they were Sinjin's favorite food. I cannot see a butterfly without thinking of Sinjin's journey to the sun. Butterflies have also been appearing in my dreams a lot recently. Lucille was also gracious enough to let me read a story Sinjin wrote about a couple of mating penguins, and now whenever someone says Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (which you wouldn't think happens a lot but I have heard it said twice since reading the story) I think of Sinjin. I've even said it once when I didn't know what to say with Sinjin in mind. Not to mention all the songs from Sinjin's CD. All these are just reminders from someone who hardly knew Sinjin, I cannot imagine what his family is going through. The thing is though, as much as these reminders cause pain, I see Sinjin's bright, beautiful face everytime and in that moment his light touches my heart, just as if he were standing in front of me. That's what consoles me when I think about the Coen family's pain, I imagine them all walking around with these gloriously sun-kissed hearts from all the times Sinjin has swooped down on his butterfly wings and kissed their shattered he arts. I also like to imagine that every one of those sun-kisses glues some of those shattered pieces back together.
With all my love,
Shelby Parenteau