I hope everyone is enjoying the summer! Since Springs , parts of our province have been affected with floods and now wild fires. Please, please be careful!
[Floods in Vancouver]
[Fire in Vancouver]
Our family had a great Canada day weekend on Gabriola Island just off Nanaimo BC. For those who are not from Vancouver, we are a growing over populated beautiful city! So much beauty, so much to see, so expensive. Our family is fortunate enough to have homes away from the city where we can retrieve ourselves and for kids, brother, sisters and cousins to meet.
Watching the kids play kick the can, slip and slide while sipping on a cold beverage, made me count my blessings. Brought me back to my own early childhood memories…
[Canada day on Gabriola]
Meeting my adoptive Mom and Dad
My adopted mom Magalie Bang aka Genevieve Celier is from Cameroon, a country in Central Africa, South East of Nigeria. My adopted father Vincent Marie Celier is from France. Unsuccessful in being able to have children on their own, they decided to adopt.
I do not recall how my mom came into my life. I do not recall leaving the orphanage or even traveling to Belgium where we spent a bit of time in a monastery among monks. It is almost like one day it was just Rosie and I, and then here we are in the care of this beautiful chocolate skinned woman with a smile and eyes so tender which brought so much comfort, so much promise.
[My beautiful mom]
The monastery, from what I remember was where our mom and a friend had gone before and wanted to visit again and be blessed with her two new daughters. If you remember in my previous post, I came across something , someone unnatural and after that encounter, I forgot to mention that I had lost my voice, I could no longer talk. But my fondest memory is singing religious songs with my sister and my new mom in that monetary in Belgium. More than 30 years later I remember “Omnama Shivaya, Omnama Shivaya, Omnama Shivaya…Omnama Shivaya!
We left Belgium enroute to Brest in Bretagne also known Britany to the English people. I remember being fascinated by the fast train, looking through the window staring at the landscape like fast moving images. We arrived at the station where we got off and in front of us, this white man, standing there as if he was expecting us. Yes, he was our adopted father.
