This is the story of my life so far: 69 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 114
For Christmas 1997, Madel, the biological mother of Syrille and Gaëlle, had invited them to visit her in Maryland. So, they went.
On Christmas day, neither my eldest daughters, Roseline and Betty, nor myself were willing to cook. So, for lunch, we decided to go out and find a restaurant. However, as it was Christmas, most of the restaurants were closed. We only found a rather large Chinese dim sum restaurant. In there, there were only Asian people, except for a white couple that was having lunch with an Asian couple.
So, one white guy with two black girls was something that not usual for most of the people around us. After more than 10 years living with my black children, I was immune to the attention we were getting, but my daughters were not really comfortable.
Madel invited again Syrille and Gaëlle to spent several weeks with her in August 1998. Because Syrille had a basketball tournament, Gaëlle flew to Maryland several days before him.
Before he left I told him that I was a little concerned because Madel had told Gaëlle to bring a lot of clothes because she did not want to do laundry. I added that I hoped she was not doing something stupid.
In the months after the death of my sister Brigitte, the mental state of my father had deteriorated rapidly. He was forgetting things constantly and was becoming incoherent from time to time.
At one point, he disappeared for 24 hours and he was found in the train station of the city of Tours, where some of my brothers went to get him back.
After this episode, he was put in a nursing home. I was told that he was no longer able to read and to write, which for a guy that has lived for so many years for the written word, not being able to read or write was the worst that could happen.
So, in August 1998, while Syrille and Gaëlle were in Maryland with Madel, I went to France to see my father before he would lose his head for good.
With my mother, I went to visit him in his nursing home. He was able to recognize me and we had a reasonable conversation for approximately 45 minutes. I was happy to have seen him in a reasonable state.
Little did I know that this would be the last time I would see my father.
Before returning to British Columbia, I called Syrille and Gaëlle in Maryland. Syrille was evasive in the answers to my questions and gave the phone to Gaëlle. When I asked if everything was OK, she told me:
- No. Madel has my passport and she is forbidding me to return to Canada!
Cintinue to Part 116
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Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14
Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21
Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24 - Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28
Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32 - Part 33 - Part 34 - Part 35
Part 36 - Part 37 - Part 38 - Part 39 - Part 40 - Part 41 - Part 42
Part 43 - Part 44 - Part 45 - Part 46 - Part 47 - Part 48 - Part 49
Part 50 - Part 51 - Part 52 - Part 53 - Part 54 - Part 55 - Part 56
Part 57 - Part 58 - Part 59 - Part 60 - Part 61 - Part 62 - Part 63
Part 64 - Part 65 - Part 66 - Part 67 - Part 68 - Part 69 - Part 70
Part 71 - Part 72 - Part 73 - Part 74 - Part 75 - Part 76 - Part 77
Part 78 - Part 79 - Part 80 - Part 81 - Part 82 - Part 83 - Part 84
Part 85 - Part 86 - Part 87 - Part 88 - Part 89 - Part 90 - Part 91
Part 92 - Part 93 - Part 94 - Part 95 - Part 96 - Part 97 - Part 98
Part 99 - Part 100 - Part 101 - Part 102 - Part 103 - Part 104
Part 105 - Part 106 - Part 107 - Part 108 - Part 109 - Part 110
Part 111 - Part 112 - Part 113 - Part 114