The Story of My Life so Far - Part 112 - Summer 1996: Vacations in France and death of my sister Brigitte

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 111

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When we arrived in Canada in the summer of 1994, I had told my four children that we would not return to France on vacation for the next two years.

So, two years later, in the summer of 1996, we all went back to France. The children stayed in France for almost two months, while I went back o Vancouver after four weeks.

I don't remember everything that we did, but I know that during my four weeks in France, we mostly stayed at the Abbey with my parents and probably with some of my brothers and sisters and their children.

My second sister, Brigitte, who was four years younger than me, had married 20 years before a very nice guy, Pierre, who was farming on his family property some 20 km from the Abbey. Together they had four children, including two very young girls.

Around 1992, Brigitte had been diagnosed with breast cancer and she was treated for that. It was believed that she had been cured, but unfortunately the cancer came back stronger than before and in July 1996 she was at the end of her life.

With my parents, we went to visit her for the last time. She died a few days later on July 31^st. My father was very affected by her death and it is probably one of the reasons that his mental health deteriorated in the next year.

With my children and the rest of our family, we went to the funeral in Pierre's village, Braye-sur-Maulne.

Shortly after the funeral, Geneviève took charge of the children for three weeks, while I went back to British Columbia.

Continue to Part 113

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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