May 10 marks the two year and ten month-iversary for Meredith and me.
It also marks three years since Sylvain suddenly died.
Sylvain Rouze was a co-worker of mine at Apple. I had known him for a little over a year. anne sat next door to me, and Sylvain sat in the office right across from mine. His was the one with the giant inflatable Jack Daniels bottle and the Imperial Star Destroyer hanging from the ceiling. He was just one month older than me. I still have him listed in my Palm with his email address, because somehow, I cannot bear to delete him.
Sylvain was incredibly smart and so funny. One of my favorite stories of him came from a birthday dinner for me just a few months before he died. We had sat down, and Ron had ordered the wine. Sylvain proceeded to explain how whenever he was in restaurants, they always brought him the wine to try, no matter who ordered it. He said that, "even at home in France, they do." We all laughed at this -- and then the waitress presented the bottle to Sylvain to try.
Sylvain was great to have around. No matter how bad things were (and they were, at times), he could always find some way to make you smile -- some way to lighten the day.
I missed him when we went to see The Phantom Menace. He had been looking forward to that movie as much as anyone I knew (his email address? vader@apple.com). I missed him at my wedding. I missed him at work and at parties.
I miss him now.
Posted by Mike at May 9, 2002 10:59 PMThat's right: Even in France he was always the one asked to try wine. But I suspect he was using his Jedi's mind trick, to influence the waiters' minds.
I met Sylvain in 1992 when we started studying in our engineering college in Brest, France, and we never really lost contact after that time.
I think that, every time I've watched the Star Wars trilogy in the same evening, he was also watching. (hum, except that the last time, we both fell asleep before the end...)
Sylvain also offered the "Dilbert Principle" book to me. This book is great, but this is probably the only book I refuse to lend to anyone, I keep it as a personal treasure.
I miss him.
Posted by: Benoit Marchandise on July 17, 2002 02:20 PMWell, I missed this unexpectable new until yesterday... I feel as I if had been unconscious for 9 years now... I was in Classe Preparatoires before Sylvain got to Brest, and Sylvain was my best friend. We had less and less opportinities to see each other then, and the last new I had was he was going to the US for a job... It was back in 1996.
And yes, I confirm the wine anecdote.