Category: Uncategorized

Daejeong, le 13 mars 2021

This is not an advertisement for Apple.

My most recent devices are Samsung. Of course, I live in Korea, one of the most advanced countries in the world regarding technology. I did start working with PC’s when they came out and became available to the masses not quite 40 years ago. Tired of fighting viruses, I eventually purchased an Apple computer at the beginning of the Millenium. I even remember a Blackberry phone in there sometime.

I am now preparing for a visit to the Apple store tomorrow. I am still carrying around three old Apple devices, a phone, an I-Pad and a LapTop. All three need, at least, a tune-up. Well, the phone died over a year ago but it still holds a quite large address book and bluntly refuses to let me access it. Dozens and dozens of numbers and addresses who might not get a long awaited call or text. I still use my damaged I-Pad every day to read the news, occasionally for texts and e-mail and quite often for pictures. I have over ten thousand pictures on it and I don’t know how to store them in the I-Cloud because I changed my e-mail address and I don’t know what to do about that. Unfortunately, I took a fall while holding the I-Pad in my hands. The glass cracked and has been looking worse with time. It still takes great pictures but looking at them through a very cracked glass is not really pleasant. The laptop I also use daily. I have Facebook and the e-mail opened when I’m home. I am writing on it now. In my clumsiness I tipped over a full glass of orange juice on it, while it was open on the table, a couple of weeks ago. I picked it up immediately and Stephanie helped me get it as dry as we could as quickly as we could. However, within minutes, it went completely blank. Miraculously, it came back to life the following day but the keyboard never felt the same. Would you believe it feels like it’s sticky inside?

I need to psychologically prepare myself for this visit because, well, my phone is most probably older than most of the employees that I will encounter there. Also, all of my devices are in French and/or English, no Hangeul and this Apple store is in Jeju City in South Korea. I’ll report back when I have an outcome.

Daejeong, le 12 mars 2021

Merci à Betsy Hubbard de nous donner l’opportunité d’écrire dans une autre langue que l’anglais.

Thank you to Betsy Hubbard for giving us the opportunity to write in another language than English.

Je suis né à Montréal, deuxième ville francophone au monde, de parents francophones. Montréal est aussi une ville cosmopolite où plusieurs cultures et plusieurs langues se croisent. L’anglais est la deuxième langue parlée et elle y tient une place importante. Montréal est la Métropole du Québec, seule province officiellement française du Canada. Une seule autre province canadienne est officiellement bilingue, le Nouveau-Brunswick. Malgré la présence d’une minorité de francophones, toutes les autre provinces et territoires du Canada sont anglophones. La seule frontière internationale du Québec est avec les États-Unis, pays anglophone. Il y a 8.5 millions d’habitants au Québec entourée d’une mer de plus de 350 millions d’anglophones.

Je suis fier de ma langue et j’y tiens. Le Québec est fier de sa langue et y tient.

Ma mère ne parlait pas anglais mais mon père était bilingue. Quant à moi, j’ai appris l’anglais avant de commencer l’école. Lorsque j’étais tout petit, nos voisins immédiats étaient Monsieur et Madame Leclair, un couple près de l’âge de la retraite dont le mari, Émile, avait comme épouse, Mary, unilingue anglophone. Ces bonnes gens n’avaient pas d’enfants et me gâtait beaucoup. J’étais si petit que même mon français était approximatif. Pour moi, Monsieur Leclair était “Quelair” et Madame Leclair était “Pee-Wee”, du sobriquet que son mari lui donnait.

Comme Pee-Wee ne travaillait pas à l’extérieur de la maison, j’aimais bien passer du temps avec elle. Je lui parlais en français et elle me répondait en anglais. Nous ne comprenions pas toujours ce que l’autre voulait dire. J’attendais donc avec excitation le retour du travail de Quelair afin qu’il puisse me traduire ce que je voulais transmettre à Pee-Wee. J’allais la voir avec mon anglais tout juste appris et retournais ensuite voir Quelair avec la réponse, en anglais de Pee-Wee. Il me traduisait, en français, ce qu’elle voulait me communiquer et ainsi de suite. C’est comme ça que j’ai appris les balbutiements de la langue de Shakespeare. De plus, mon quartier, à Verdun, était occupé à peu près à 50-50 de francophones et anglophones.

Plusieurs années plus tard, je suis arrivé face-à-face avec Stephanie. Elle n’aurait parler que le norvégien que je serais tombé en amour avec elle quand même. Il s’avérait cependant qu’elle ne parlait que l’anglais. Notre relation s’est donc amorcée en anglais, il y a maintenant un peu plus de trente ans. Évidemment, suite à son arrivée au Québec, elle a appris le français mais comme nous avions commencé en anglais, c’est cette dernière langue qui est restée dans notre quotidien. Nous n’échangeons pratiquement en français que lorsque nous sommes en présence de francophones. Nos cinq filles sont toutes bilingues. Il y a même de l’espagnol et quelques mots d’italien qui se parlent ici et là.

Je vis sur Jeju-do, en Corée du Sud, depuis maintenant près de deux ans. Malheureusement mon Hangeul est pratiquement à zéro. Je trouve extrêmement difficile d’apprendre une nouvelle langue à l’âge où je suis rendu. De plus, les coréens nous rendent la vie trop facile en nous parlant en anglais. Presque tous les coréens de moins de 40 ans parlent anglais suffisamment bien pour soutenir une conversation. Les autres finissent par se faire comprendre. Je peux donc vivre en Corée du Sud avec l’anglais. Tout dans mon entourage immédiat se passe en anglais. Je vis donc en anglais. Ce n’est pas entièrement nouveau pour moi mais c’est la première fois que, sauf exception, l’absence du français est si évidente.

Depuis l’enfance, mon cerveau n’a pas besoin de traduire lorsque j’échange en anglais que ce soit pour parler, lire ou écrire. J’ai aussi remarqué que depuis que je vis avec Stephanie, je pense et je rêve quelquefois en anglais. Je n’ai donc pas eu besoin d’une grande adaptation pour cette vie en anglais ici. Je continue toutefois à écouter la radio en français, à lire le journal en français quotidiennement et à échanger avec ma famille et avec mes amis francophones aussi souvent que possible.

Je suis plus que confortable en anglais mais je tiens à ma langue française que j’aime.

Daejeong, le 11 mars 2021

Most days, I listen to music. Since I have taken over the household chores, I spend more time in the house. I have had a nostalgic call for some music I listened to in my youth. I started with French Canadian (Québécois) songs from the sixties and seventies, from Pauline Julien to Robert Charlebois to Offenbach, Octobre and others. I then moved on to more internationally popular music from my teenage years. Music I discovered with my High school friends Claude, Sylvie, Michel, Denis… Genesis, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac… My good friend Michel passed away about four months ago. I like to remember him by going back in time.

Favorites on family road trips were Melissa Etheridge, Michael Jackson, Colin James, Annie Lennox, Al Green. That’s without mentioning the Harry Potter and Agatha Christie audio books with the kids.

When I really am into it, there are the classics, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Bach and, my favorite, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

When our three oldest daughters were still in elementary school, I took them to a concert given by a local harmony band of children who were learning to play wind musical instruments. After the concert, my daughters all wanted to join this band and they did. After their third lesson, they each came home with a clarinette to rehearse. Stephanie and I looked at each other thinking this would be a very long weekend. It was actually quite pleasant and became more and more pleasant as time went by. Eventually, all of our five daughters learned to play at least one instrument: clarinette, saxophone, trumpet, flute, or some piano. Two of them joined performing bands. Our oldest, Jaya, plays the baritone saxophone in a Big Band. That band played twice at the Montréal International Jazz Festival.

Some years ago, while listening to one of their outdoor concerts in our neighborhood, I met an old friend. He asked me if I sang. He had recently joined a choir and they were missing some male voices. I didn’t sing but decided to give it a try. Just to see. I loved it. It was a small choir of about twenty mostly singing popular music in both French and English. This was so much fun that in 2018 I accepted an invitation to join a much larger choir. I became a bass signer in the Michel Brousseau International Choir. There were 153 of us. We rehearsed one song for more than six months.  In the summer of 2019, we sang the fifty-one minute Mozart’s Requiem in its original Latin in Salzbourg and Vienna in Austria and in Prague in the Czech Republic.  We gave nine concerts in six different churches. The churches were absolutely grand and always full of big time Mozart fans. I had the privilege to sing the Requiem in the church where he was married and in the church where this piece was played for the very first time, at his funeral.

Listening to music can put you in a mood or change it, it can make you happy or sad, it can make you dance, it can make you cry, it can bring back memories. Today, I listened to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem played by l’Orchestre Métropolitaine de Montréal under the direction of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin in memory of my dear friend Michel Perrier. He just loved the l’Orchestre Métropolitaine de Montréal.

Daejeong, le 10 mars 2021

You have it or you don’t. I don’t. I’m talking about a talent for sports. I’ve always liked sports, always liked to play sports, always liked to watch sports. I’m grateful to have been born with other skills. I am smart enough to be a leader and a good organizer in my field but I still like sports.

We are lucky to be able to use the school’s facilities: a gymnasium, olympic length swimming pool, soccer field, golf practice greens. Last night, three of our friends joined Stephanie and I for badminton in the gym. It was more for the exercise but a little competition made it fun. Keith was with us. He has a natural talent for sports. He has “it”. It’s a real pleasure to watch him go with what seems to be no effort at all: the eye-hand coordination, to always be at the right place on the court, to know what strength to apply, where to aim and it’s all done without sweat and without bragging.

As a boy and a young man, I played many sports. Being Canadian, of course, I played hockey. My skating was far from great. So I tried indoor hockey. I was a little better but still lacked many skills. I played baseball, soccer, volleyball and many other ball sports, squash and, of course, badminton. I’ve been cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. I did not know how to swim until I was in my early thirties. I wanted my daughters to swim so I sent them to a class. When they eventually knew how to swim, naturally, they wanted me to take them to the pool. So I also had to learn. My first run at downhill skiing at 56 years old was less successful.

My hockey playing was not good enough to compete in a league with my friends so I became a referee. As a student, I was working the night shift at a summer job in downtown Montréal. Most of the time after work I went to the bar until closing time. In the morning, I would cycle about ten kilometers to the gym to play squash for a couple of hours, cycle back home and go to work again and do it over the next day. I think I won two games that summer. My only real success, where I could really compete with others, was Go-Kart racing but as I gained weight with age, however, I became less competitive.

As a teenager and a young man, before the children were born, I played badminton almost every Friday night. Of course, with practice, I got better but my friends did also. I was always a notch behind. No matter, I had endurance. I still have endurance and I still have the will to move. Playing badminton last night was fun and gave me a good sweat.

Most of my career I worked in front of a screen or sat around a meeting table, not moving enough. In retirement, I’m on my bike every day. I am moving a lot more, sweating a lot and loving it, although I still don’t really have “it”.

Daejeong, le 9 mars 2021

When I was a boy my dad would tell my brother and I that he would retire at age 60 and he did. After working 34 years for the same railway company, he turned 60 in September, filed his retirement papers and, because there was some kind of a bonus on his pension, continued working until January. He then stopped and never looked back, even though he was asked several times to come in for short term contracts. He never returned. He died at the early age of 71 but still profited from eleven years of the cottage all summers, several winters in Florida and dancing a few nights a week.

I started working at age 16 and did so all the time I was a student. Twelve days after graduating from university I started my first full time job and this working full time, and more, went on for 38 years. I occupied several interesting jobs mostly in developing and managing non profit and social housing both in federal and municipal politics. I never counted my working hours but always took my vacation time. I thought I would work until 64. I stopped at 62 to move to Jeju-do in South Korea. I became an IMOL (International Man of Leisure). I left Canada exactly six days after officially retiring even though I went back to what was my office twice during those six days.

After 38 years of working, retirement takes some adjustment. I thought I had prepared myself for it. The first six months were great, like a long vacation. Moving to another country helps with that feeling. Also, Stephanie and I travelled to Sri Lanka and to Vietnam. Those two trips were vacations. I guess it took a bit more than six months for it to hit me. What do I do now? My wife is working, she has a life. How about me? It was as if my head, my heart, my body and my feelings were in different places all at the same time. I knew I was going to be OK. I knew this is what I wanted but my feelings were all over the place. Maybe I was somewhat depressed, I don’t know. Stephanie was so very patient with me.

This period also coincided with me suffering from plantar fasciitis. That did not help because I could hardly walk. I discovered physiotherapy and Asian acupuncture. A couple of months later my foot started to feel much better and my daughter Annie arrived for a prolonged visit. I think my body and feelings adapted to what I had decided my life would be for now on. I bounced back by continuing my activities taking care of the house, biking and volunteering.

I have been retired for soon to be two years and I am now a happy camper. Retired life sees me very busy. Days go by fast. I do more physical activities than when I was working. I sleep longer and better nights than I have in a very long time.

Three months after retiring, my dad had to go to the doctor. He was not feeling good. He had chills immediately followed by hot flashes. After giving him a physical exam, the doctor said he found nothing wrong with him. So they started talking. The diagnosis was his body needed to adapt to his new regime of life. He did not have his regular routine of the last decades.

I guess my body has adapted to retirement because I am feeling quite refreshed.

Daejeong, le 8 mars 2021

My wife has always known what she wanted in life.  At the very beginning of our relationship Stephanie told me she wanted more children.  So came Simone.  When Simone was a little girl Stephanie told me that when our daughters would be older, more independent, she would eventually go back to university.  So she did.  When Simone, our youngest of five daughters, turned thirteen, Stephanie started classes for a new degree in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) at Concordia University in Montréal.  This was a four year program.

By then, we had been together for a little over fifteen years and we had started thinking and talking about our future, our retired years together.  Meanwhile, I had founded a business to manage non-profit housing.  Stephanie had left her job to join me in this thriving enterprise in 2000.  Also, I was involved in politics.  I became a municipal councillor with numerous responsibilities taking a lot of my time.

So, both Stephanie and I are very busy with our five daughters, our business, her studies, my politics but we do find time for vacations.  The more we work, the more we are busy, the more it becomes important for us to find time for us.  Stephanie and I, sometimes with the children, sometimes without, find ways to vacation and travel once or twice a year.  We travelled to Central America, Europe, many of the United States and all the Canadian provinces but Newfoundland.

In our reflexions on what we would do in our later years, travelling always came back on the top of the list.  Stephanie and I travel very well together.  We enjoy similar things like outdoor activities, good food, new cultural activities, museums, music and discovering people, their way of life, their habits.  We also both appreciate cities and nature.  After some consideration for moving to a country cottage, we quickly conclude that we will want to travel.  We also realize that, so far, we have travelled as tourists for no more than a few weeks at a time.  Though quite enjoyable, these trips did not permit us to integrate ourselves in the different cultures we encountered.

Stephanie recently reminded me that many of these reflexions between us happened during our frequent walks in Verdun alongside the majestic St-Lawrence River.  As time went by and as we got older, our project became more realistic.  I came up with a suggestion.  We would move into a community for some months, hopefully meet some local people, learn about their culture, the history, geography, politics of the country, discover food, habits, ways of living, see how far we could integrate this community.  After some months, we would come back home for a while and start over again somewhere else and continue this until we were ready to settle again.  

Then the question of how and when do we start this came.  I was still an elected member of the Montréal City council.  I was hoping that this commitment would continue for two more terms which would bring me to 64 years old.  I would then retire and be ready for full time travels.  Stephanie, had just started her new teaching career and, though it was a real challenge, she was loving it.  Also, being seven years younger than I am she would not be ready for retirement yet.  How could we manage this most motivating project before I am too old to enjoy it all?

We had a few years to find out the how and when but, pretty much then, in 2013, I lost the election.  I suddenly became free but Stephanie and I agreed that she should have more teaching experience in Québec before we travelled.  I then found a job leading a non-profit organization developing social housing.

Through some of Stephanie’s student colleagues who were teaching abroad we found out that teaching English could be a means for us to travel around the world.  After consulting with some of them and doing our own research, we decided we would not want to deal with second rated shabby organizations.  In 2018, Stephanie registered with an international job search organization for teachers.  We both attended a Job Fair in Toronto in December 2018.  We thought we would make some contacts and also attend the Boston Job Fair in February 2019 to have a better idea of the possibilities to slowly prepare ourselves for the summer of 2021 or 2022.  

This Toronto Fair was a big deal.  About 60 International schools were there.  Stephanie had prepared a port-folio introducing herself.  We quickly went through the list of the schools before getting there and made a preliminary list of interesting schools she could teach in and places we agreed we could live in.  We were just looking.  On site, we realized how popular Stephanie was for a good number of these schools.  She met with seven schools situated in the Bahamas, Saudi Arabia, China, Koweit and South Korea.   After those interviews, she got two job offers.  We never expected that so soon.

That evening, we sat on the floor in our hotel room and went through what had just happened and decided, just for the heck of it, to consider these two offers from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and from Jeju in South Korea.  The top school on Stephanie’s list was BHA.  She was very impressed by the Empowering Women slogan.  The package from Jeddah was slightly better.  They also offered me a job managing their housing complex.  Would we do this starting summer 2019?  We decided YES!  We thoroughly examined both schools.  No doubt, Branksome Hall Asia was the best school.  We thoroughly examined the environments surrounding both those schools.  We knew nothing about Jeddah nor Jeju.  Jeddah, on the Red sea, seemed an ideal place to travel from to Africa and Eastern Europe.  But it is in Saudi Arabia.  How would we fit in such a conservative country?  We went on Google Maps and travelled through the city.  We saw that only about 25% of people on the streets were women and more than half wore the burqa.  How would Stephanie, a five foot nine blond Scandinavian woman fit?  On the other hand, Jeju, which we had never heard of, seemed extraordinary.  An ancient volcanic island in the middle of the East China sea with many many beaches and more nature paths to walk and cycle than we ever would have time to do.  A fantastic starting point to visit Eastern Asia.  Also Korea being one of the most occidental countries of Asia seemed more appealing to us.  Korea would be more comfortable for us for this first long journey away from home than Saudi Arabia.

We decided Jeju was a go.

Daejeong, le 7 mars 2021

This morning the ride is to Café Crackers for lattes or cappuccinos or, in my case, a tangerine-ade. We ride for a little over half an hour of small up and down hills while chatting between us. We are six expats from Australia, Scotland, Guatemala, and Canada installed on Jeju-do to teach in an all girls international school. The conversation turns around the passing yesterday of the mother of one of our friends and colleagues, and the impossibility of our friend to travel back home for this event because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

I’m happy I decided to wear my jacket because the Jeju wind is chilly this morning. We have been to this Café many times before. Service is slow but everybody is happy with the coffee, pastries and ade. On each side of the counter, there are two sitting rooms plus a small living room space with cushions on the floor. Because there are six of us, we need to split up in two different rooms.

On the way back, I have a conversation with my Aussi friend about some Irish Fenians and French Canadian Patriots who were jailed in Australia by the British. I learn about the Irishman working on the American whaler, The Catalpa, who helped rescue some of his compatriots and aided their escape in 1876.

The Sunday morning ride is becoming a tradition. Keith usually sends a reminder on Saturday. We have a regular meeting place at 09:30. The more severe COVID-19 restrictions since last December make that our group is smaller. We usually ride for about an hour or so to a different Café every week. We often go to the sea shore for the view. We are usually back home a little after noon. I find this a great way to start a Sunday.

My sincere condolences go to my friend Terri in this difficult time.

Daejeong, le 6 mars 2021

My daughter Jessica got a notice for her lease renewal yesterday. She panicked. The notice mentioned a rent increase of 550.$. Her rent would go from 1,200.$ to 1,750.$, a 46% increase. Jessica has a new landlord since less than one month. Her old landlords were … her parents.

So, as mentioned in previous posts, Stephanie and I moved to South Korea in the summer of 2019. After one year here, it became obvious that we would not be returning to Canada for some time. We decided to sell the houses. We owned two triplex’ side by side bought in 1992 and 2010. We raised our family of five daughters there. All of them eventually occupied, at some point, one of the other five dwellings. Three of them were still there when we recently sold.

Selling the house was also selling the family home. A difficult decision for us to make but with even more emotional consequences for our daughters. So much happened in that house. Our youngest, Simone, was born in the house. She was still in the same bedroom 24 years later. She and our second youngest, Alexandra were the strongest hit. They had to move out because the two new owners were moving into the two bottom flats. There were a lot of tears.

Back to Jessica’s rent increase. She lives with Félix, our 7 year old grandson. The proposed new rent is not within her budget. Her first reaction was to call us. She was our “tenant” since 2015. Anything to do with the apartment, she would come to us. “Honey, as much as we sympathize with you, we are not your landlords anymore”. I went through all the arguments she may use in her defense of this outrageous increase with her and had her realize that the relationship with her new landlord was now strictly a business one.

In the twenty-one years Stephanie and I had tenants, money was never our first thought whenever something popped up. A good neighborly relationship was more our priority. However, I guess it’s going to be a new reality for the only one of our girls still in one of our old dwellings.

Daejeong, le 5 mars 2021

As I have posted already, Stephanie and I live on Jeju-do in South Korea since the summer of 2019. We came from Canada so Stephanie could teach in an International school. After one year of loving our new life, we decided to sell our Canadian properties, including our family house in which we raised our family of five daughters since 1992. The selling of the house I will keep for a future posting.

Today, I want to talk about a trip back to Montréal in the summer of 2020, especially the part when I am to return to Korea.

Of course, we had not planned on this pandemic to change how everything is done. Nobody did. After one year away, we went back to Canada to see our people. There was a need to see Stephanie’s mother, our daughters and grand-children. As most know, there are seven weeks between school years. During the pandemic, two of them are used to quarantine when we arrive in Canada and two others when we return to Korea. Three weeks left in the middle of the summer to see our people … while maintaining social distancing.

To be able to quarantine before schools started. Stephanie left Canada at the end of July. I stayed back for a little over a month to organize the sale of the properties.

Korea has been doing very well trying to control this virus. Much better than Canada. To do so well, some measures, sometimes drastic, had to be put in place. Different measures and more controls were implemented for travelers. We had to get a re-entry visa without which we could not return even if we had an original visa permitting us to stay until the end of 2021. With this re-entry visa came some conditions. One of which was the need to obtain a medical certificate issued in Canada no sooner than three days before departing for Korea.

We left for Canada on June 21. During the summer, the number of new cases of COVID-19 went considerably down in Korea. While in Montréal, Stephanie was in contact with colleagues from school who re-entered Korea before her. They informed her that because the situation had gotten better, they did not have to produce the medical certificate Immigration was previously asking for. To be sure about that, Stephanie called the Korean consulate in Montréal and was confirmed that such certificate was no longer necessary to re-enter Korea. She left without the certificate and was able to re-enter. I then took for granted that I too would not need the medical certificate.

In the first week of September, I was ready to rejoin my wife. I took a plane to Vancouver and stayed four days with our daughter Annie and her partner Mikhaïl. She is a social worker in a French school there. On the fifth day, I was on a plane to Seoul.

At Incheon airport in Seoul, I present my Canadian passport, my Korean visa, my re-entry visa and my Korean Alien Registration Card. I am asked for my medical certificate. “I don’t have one” I reply. Because of COVID, there are many steps to take, many people to see, before you are cleared to enter the country. At every one of those steps, I am asked for my medical certificate. Everybody is very polite, very courteous with me and sends me to the next step. There is one last step I am not used to. I am sent to meet a senior Immigration officer in an office. He tells me I cannot enter the country because of the missing medical certificate. Since the month of July, the number of cases of COVID-19 have gone up again and the medical certificate is an absolute necessity. To top it all off, he produces the document I signed to obtain my re-entry visa. One of the conditions on that signed document is to produce a medical certificate. I argue, tell my story about my wife re-entering a few weeks back, about the confirmation from the consulate. “There are no exceptions” I am told over and over.

I am to be detained in the airport awaiting the next flight back to Canada. Because of the pandemic, there are a lot fewer international flights. The next one is in 48 hours. I am permitted to stay in the Transit Hotel in the airport but I cannot leave the airport. My passport is seized, my luggage searched. I am accompanied to this hotel. During my transit, I appeal this decision. They come back with the same decision: “No exceptions”. I also communicate with my Korean friends at school. They are as shocked as I am that such a thing can happen in their country. Koreans are usually very helpful people, always looking for a solution. In these exceptional times, it was time for “No exceptions”.

In Vancouver, I obtained a medical certificate mentioning I did not have any COVID-19 symptoms. This certificate was emitted thru a short phone conversation and sent to me by e-mail. I had it within 30 minutes. I spent another wonderful night with Annie and Mikhaïl before flying back to Incheon the next day. My re-entry into Korea was then much easier.

This little adventure cost me a lot of grief, stress, loss of sleep, four days and 2,500.$. I was then ready to start a two week quarantine because there are “No exceptions”.

Daejeong, le 4 mars 2021

I’ve had the same I-Pad for several years. I use it only for a few things. I read my favorite newspaper on it every day. I also use it to download books but mostly I use it as a camera. I take many, many pictures.

Ten or so days ago, my eldest daughter, Jaya, mother of two young teenagers, Rébéka and Alec, told me she was gathering pictures to start photo albums for these kids. She knows I have pictures so she asked if I could send any.

I started last night to go through the oldest pictures on my I-Pad. Memories started to appear in my mind pretty much immediately and the feelings to go with them. Those teenagers are great. They are so beautiful and smart and they make me so proud. But how did they get to be so tall? Seems like just a little while ago they were so little.

We were having a quiet supper at home on a week night when my phone rang. Marvin, Jaya’s partner was on the other end. He had never called me before. Even though she was a few weeks early, she was in labor and this first grand-child was coming pretty much now. Stephanie and I hopped in the car and drove almost an hour to the hospital in suburb Montréal. We had never been to that hospital so it took some time to find exactly where it was. Then, we had to find our way to the birthing center, within.

When we finally got to the ward, it seemed deserted. No one to be seen, no sounds. We started to walk around and got to what looked liked the nurses quarters. No one there. It was a little mysterious. Stephanie spotted a transparent bag on the counter. She said “That looks like a placenta”. It was. On that bag there was a sticker with my daughter’s name on it. The baby was born. The inside of my hands became all moist. I had to see that baby. I had to see my daughter. Within a minute we were all together.

On March 26, 2007, Rébéka was born. On March 26, 2007, I became a grand-father. Greatest feeling ever!

What felt weird though was that my little girl was a mom.

Looking at pictures brings back so many memories… and moist hands…