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 105
The first house we rent on Berry Road in Richmond was owned by a woman from Trinidad named Shameine Ali. As I remember, she was working for the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia.
She was divorced and had two sons, Zeyn and Zaven.
Zaven, the youngest son, was probably born in 1981 or 1982. He was a brilliant student and started to take course at the University of British Columbia when he was 15 or 16. He got a B.Sc. in computer science in 2002. He is now a technical director at Electronic Arts in Burnaby.
Zeyn was slightly younger than Syrille. The two boys became good friends. When he was eight years old, Zeyn had decided that he wanted to be an actor, dancer and singer, and to perform in musicals. He went to a specialized school in New York and started his career as a performer. Unfortunately, he sometimes suffered from psychosis, and was hospitalized once in 2004 for this. At the age of 25, he died of a fall from the 16th floor of his Vancouver apartment building, probably during a psychotic episode.
The house we rented on Berry Road had two levels. On the upper level, as I remember, there was the kitchen ,the living room and the master bedroom (my bedroom). On the ground level, there were 4 bedrooms, one for each of the children.
The house had not been upgraded for several years, and things were starting to fall apart. I asked Shameine to do something, but she did not. So, I decided to find another house to rent in Richmond that was more comfortable.
I found one at 9100 McCutcheon Place. The landlord was chinese and he had no problem renting his house to a French white guy with four black children. He was only concerned about money and cleanliness.
He was satisfied that I would be able to pay the rent when I disclosed my salary. For the cleanliness, he asked to visit our current house. So, we made sure our house on Berry Road was in good shape, and he was satisfied.
So, in June 1995, we moved to our new house:
9100 McCutcheon Place, Richmond, British Columbia
source: Google Street View
I don't remember the plan of the house, but I know that there were five bedrooms and that it was big enough for us five.
We stayed in this house for several years until I bought a house, still in Richmond.
Continue to Part 107
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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