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 119
Syrille spent five years, from grade 8 to grade 12, at McRoberts high school in Richmond.
He was an average student. He made a lot of friends at the school.
In sport, he has played mostly team sports: soccer, basketball, and rugby.
I suspected that he would be very good at running middle distance, like his half-sister Gaëlle. But he did not find it fun to run and to train for hours, mostly alone.
In grade 11, he agreed to try to compete in the 200m and 400m. However, he could not, because he had a dislocated shoulder playing rugby.
Finally, in the spring of 1999, he trained for around a month with Gaëlle, and was quite successful running the 400m: he went up to the finals in the BC High School Track & Field Championships and finished 11th.
I am convinced that he would even have been better in the 800m, and if he had started earlier and train, who knows how far he would have gone?
In June 1999, Syrille graduated from high school. He was still allowed to stay in British Columbia under a student permit. However, going to university would have cost me a bundle, and I did not want to spend this money.
So, we decided that he would go live with Madel, his mother, in Maryland. The problems Syrille and Gaëlle had in summer 1998 were already forgotten.
While in Maryland, he would apply for immigration to Canada and return before the summer of 2000.
Unfortunately for me and his sisters, he never did apply and he decided to stay in the United States. He is still living today in Maryland, where I have been visiting him several times.
I think that it was one of my worst mistakes in life to send Syrille to Maryland in 1999.
Continue to Part 121
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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 - Part 116
Part 117 - Part 118 - Part 119