The Story of My Life so Far - Part 116 - 1998: Gaëlle is kidnapped by her mother, my father dies

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 115

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Soon after I learned about Gaëlle's problems with her mother in Maryland, I returned from France to British Columbia. Syrille also returned from Maryland, and that was when I got the full story.

When Gaëlle arrived in Maryland, Madel, her biological mother, asked for her passport and return ticket, and Gaëlle gave them to her.
When Syrille arrived, she asked the same thing, but remembering our conversation before his departure, he refused to give his passport and return ticket. In September, Syrille was 18 years old, so there was not much his mother could do.

Soon after the arrival of Syrille, Geneviève, who was then living in the United States, came to Madel's house and explained to Gaëlle and Syrille that so far there were with me because Madel could not take care of them, but as she is able now, they will live with their biological mother. Syrille replied that he will not and that he will returned to British Columbia to live with his father and his sisters, Roseline and Betty.
Gaëlle wanted to do the same, but as she had no passport or return ticket she was not able to do it.
Basically, her biological mother had kidnapped her daughter.

We tried to talk to Madel but she was adamant that Gaëlle would stay with her. At the beginning we were able to talk to Gaëlle tried to comfort her. She told us the name of the school where she was registered in September.
Soon, Madel changed her phone number, so we were no longer able to talk to Gaëlle. Madel was convinced that Gaëlle wanted to return to live with us because we were "poison" her daughter against her.

I explained the situation to the school where Gaëlle was registered in Richmond, and they agreed to keep her registered until she would come back to British Columbia.

On September 12^th, my father had his third heart attack and died in less than five minutes. I had seen him less than 3 weeks before for the last time. I had explained to my mother the situation with Gaëlle. She agreed that getting back my daughter was more important than being there for my father's funeral.
I was not able to be there for the funerals of my maternal grandfather and grandmother, and I missed also the funeral of my father. My mother survived my father for almost 20 years, and I was there for her funeral, last July.

I contacted a lawyer who was the father of an athlete in the Kajaks track and field club, and he agreed to work pro bono. We petitioned the Supreme Court of British Columbia. For this, Syrille gave an affidavit explaining what his mother have done. The court renders a judgement that Madel should return Gaëlle to Canada.

With a copy of the judgment, I flew to Maryland where I wanted to talk to Gaëlle and to serve Madel with the judgment of the BC Supreme Court.

Continue to Part 117

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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 - Part 115