The Sah family is a busy, blended family of five. Living in The Canyons neighborhood, Robyn, Sanjeev “Jeeves,” Rylie (20), Britton (16) and Skylar (10) made their way to Colorado from Louisiana in 2020.

Growing up in Nepal, Jeeves still thinks of it as home, even after living a few years in India and in several American cities. He was 15 when the family moved to Michigan and speaks Nepalese, Hindi, Punjabi and English. After college, Jeeves worked in IT at several different corporations. Serendipitously, he moved on to a homecare and hospice company with corporate headquarters in Baton Rouge.

“It was my first role as chief information security officer,” said Jeeves. “Robyn worked for the same boss I worked for.”

Robyn, who was managing director of operations and the service desk, offered to give him a tour of New Orleans as a colleague.

“I knew I was on a date,” joked Jeeves, who ultimately left their company to work at UNC Charlotte.

When Robyn was visiting him there, Jeeves proposed at The Duke Mansion during a rain storm. They married in Turks and Caicos; Rylie was 8 and Britton was 5. The Sahs soon after welcomed Skylar. All three children were born in the same Baton Rouge hospital by the same doctor.

Robyn, a native of Eunice, Louisiana, with a darling Cajun accent, is the youngest of six kids.

After attending LSU for undergraduate study, Robyn worked for LSU’s biomedical research center in the IT department while working toward her master’s degree in public administration with a minor in IT. She had Rylie during her last semester.

“I was taking night classes after working all day and would raid the vending machine,” remembered Robyn with a laugh. “I was nine months pregnant and people in class were staring at me eating my vending machine dinner!”

Robyn moved on to work for Blue Cross Blue Shield and today works remotely for Mayo Clinic. Jeeves moved to Colorado with Centura Health, and now works for Novant Health.

It was Robyn’s first time living outside of Louisiana.

“The first winter, I came home crying and when it snowed, it took me two hours to get home,” remembered Robyn. “But today, I am the weather app queen and it’s much easier now.”

Rylie is a sophomore at LSU and Britton is a junior at Rock Canyon High School and plays baseball. Skylar is at STEM School Highlands Ranch, plays the piano and soccer and is always up for a trip to PetSmart.

The family enjoys traveling, especially to beaches, and has started hiking. They have two cats, Jo Jo and Milo.

“Even though we are beach chasers, we love it here,” said Robyn.

 

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Mardi Gras in the country

When we think of Mardi Gras, what comes to mind is the French Quarter in New Orleans: parades, beads, libations and the vibrant-colored outfits, masks and swag. But the more rural the town in Louisiana, the more traditional the Mardi Gras.

Robyn Sah, from Eunice (see article above), shared that her town’s Mardi Gras is different from the New Orleans version. On Fat Tuesday (March 4 this year), townspeople dress up in shredded linen garments that are handmade from scraps of extra fabric.

“We call it the Mardi Gras Run, which is an all day parade through Eunice. The whole premise is to dress in costume and go through a route to [ceremonially] chase the chicken to make the gumbo,” explained Robyn.

The 13-mile-long parade consists of people on horseback, musicians on trucks playing Zydeco music, medieval traditions and part of the ceremony is to offer passersby something for the gumbo, a bag of onions or seasonings, for example.

Officially called the Cajun Mardi Gras Festival, the Eunice event dates back hundreds of years to the time when it was standard to ask neighbors for ingredients and the protein (the chicken) to make a community gumbo, the mainstay meal of Mardi Gras.

 

By Hollen Wheeler; photos courtesy of Robyn Sah