This is the story of my life so far: 68 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 82
[Everything I am writing in this series is the truth. I did not invent any of this]
Geneviève's parents had a 20 year difference in age. They did not have a precise date of birth: her father was born "around 1910", while her mother was born "in 1930".
Her mother was the third wife of her father, and they had 10 children. So, Geneviève had many siblings, including several half brothers and sisters from her father's first two wives.
Her elder sister was named Scholastique, but everybody was calling her "Do". She was married to Pius, an interesting guy, that I met only briefly, who was the head of an agricultural college.
Her elder brother, Xavier, had also emigrated to France and married a French girl. He was the treasurer of a bank in Niort.
When we were in Halifax, Geneviève had asked me if we could welcome her second brother, Louis, so he could get an education. So, Louis came to live with us and went to university in Halifax.
One of Geneviève's sister was named Marie-Delphine, but everybody called her Madel. She became pregnant when she was 16 and still in high school, in the equivalent of grade 11. This messed up her life. Her son was raised by the elder sister, Do, and her husband, Pius. They already had five other children.
Eventually, she became the mistress of the financial director of the harbor of Douala, whose last name was Banini. She had another child with Mr. Banini, a daughter.
In 1985, Madel realized that she was going nowhere with her life, so she made a drastic move. Her daughter was given to a cousin of Mr. Banini, and she emigrated to France.
She first went to live with her brother Xavier near Niort. She started again grade 11 in a boarding school and was with the family of her brother during the weekend.
On the Cameroonian birth certificate of Madel, the year of her birth, 1963, was only written in numbers. She had changed the 3 into an 8, so she appeared to be only 17 years old. She never said anything at the boarding school, so the other students never guessed that she was 22 years old and already had two children.
However, she did not get along with Xavier's wife. So, she asked Geneviève if she could live with us. Once again, being a nice guy, I agreed with this.
Madel had not completely abandoned her two children. Her idea was to make them come to live with her in France.
So, in addition to the 2 or 3 bedrooms for Geneviève, myself, and our two daughter Roseline and Betty, we needed more bedrooms for Madel and her two children.
And that is the reason we rented a big house with 5 bedrooms in Fresnes in 1986.
Continue to Part 84
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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