Courage The English version follows the French. Un jour, au début de l’hiver 2022, alors que nous vivions à Dijon, Anne est rentrée des courses et m’a fait part de cette révélation. « As-tu remarqué que personne ne dit « au revoir » en se quittant? Ils disent plutôt « Courage ». Depuis qu’Anne..
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in our Hearts When I was in Grade 12 at Oakridge Secondary School in 1968, a friend passed on a cassette featuring all the songs of the musical “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel_is_Alive_and_Well_and_Living_in_Paris At that open and vulnerable age, I..
Teasing Anne Do you ever think about, or indulge in, teasing? There’s “good” teasing and “bad” teasing, I think, and all sorts of shades between. Bad teasing involves making fun of someone in a cruel or unkind way, often targeting their insecurities or weaknesses, and accompanies, or is a prelude to, bullying…
Tutoring French in London, Ontario, 1967 I was good in French; in fact, I was good at school, the academic part anyway. In phys ed or manual training, I was what my father kindly referred to as a dead loss. Back in the day, being an honours student was a catastrophic blow to any..
I love you all the time and I’ll love you forever La version française de ce court texte suit immédiatement la version anglaise. Just before she underwent emergency brain surgery to remove the accessible part of the cancer that had metastasized throughout her brain, Anne said these words to me and to our sons…
A Little Help from our Friends In the fall of 1979, as the new school year was about to begin, I found myself in exile, shunted to a crowded, windowless office space in a remote corner of our tiny college, Champlain St. Lawrence CEGEP in Quebec City. As a young, part-time English instructor, I didn’t..
A Tale of Two Annes Back in high school about 250 years ago, we studied A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I feel like I’m undergoing a novel experience of a much more intense and baffling sort in my personal life: A Tale of Two Annes. My wife Anne has been stricken..
Unhappy Campers It was the summer of 1980. Anne and I were spending our holidays in Vancouver with her family. We were child free. When fall approached, we settled on a novel way to return to our home in Quebec City, opting for Canada DriveAway . Ever heard of that blue-ribbon organization?..
Lights out in 1979 “This level of exhaustion deserves its own genre of music.” Looking back on my 46-year relationship with my wife Anne, I can’t help but express certain profound regrets and proffer belated apologies. I’m so sorry that my nocturnal proclivities cost Anne so much sleep back in 1979… a situation..
Colouring her world A victim of glioblastoma, a highly aggressive, incurable form of brain cancer, my beloved Anne has become obsessed with colouring, which propels her into a world of complex beauty and symmetry. Here we see Anne colouring with Latifa, her personal support worker (PSW). Colouring is a calming and therapeutic activity,..