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 85
As I said before, Madel, Geneviève's sister, wanted her two children to come from Cameroon to France and live with us.
Her son Syrille, arrived just before Christmas 1986.
But, her daughter, Gaëlle, who was born in September 1984, was still living with a cousin of Mr. Banini, the father.
During the school year 1986-1987, Madel went back to high school in grade 11 ( "première", in French).
And in the summer 1987, she went back on vacation to Cameroon, and came back at the end of August with Gaëlle.
I am not sure how she succeeded to have Gaëlle admitted through border control, but apparently she had no problem.
Gaëlle was almost 3 years old. She did not speak French at all, but it took her only 3 or 4 months for her to be able to talk in French.
In the beginning, she was a little afraid of me, but Roseline, Betty and Syrille told her that she should not and that I was a good guy!
Three weeks after her arrival, on a Sunday after lunch I was going to visit my parents who lived in Boissy-Saint-Léger, 15 minutes from our house in Fresnes. I asked the children if any one of them wants to come with me, and surprisingly Gaëlle volunteered. I was very happy about that, and my parents too.
And this is how Gaëlle came to be part of our family, as my fourth child.
Here is a picture of Syrille and Gaëlle, when they were 10 and 6 years old:
Continue to Part 87
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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