Laure

This picture was taken in Saigon, Vietnam in 1954, now Ho Chi Minh City.  Shortly after this picture was taken, my parents took me to Dalat, to the Couvent Les Oiseaux, a Catholic convent."  Little did I know then that the convent was to become my home, my sanctuary for eleven years.  I came back to Thakhek, Laos for a short moment and met my best friend Monic; then went back to Vietnam again to complete my last year.  By then, the streets of Dalat were full of American GIs.  After my baccalauréat, I came home in 1965 and resumed my friendship with Monic.  Looking at the face of that innocent little girl with a timid smile from Thakhek, never in a million years would I have thought that she would end up in Spotsylvania, Virginia, the good old US of A and a Mimaw of three grand children.  Instead, I would have thought that she would end up somewhere in France, married to a Frenchman and probably divorced from the Frenchman as well, hum!!!  As Isabelle said yesterday, I am a very determined individual.  Extremely determined to the point that I drive everyone crazy in my household.  Well, ask Ronnie, my friend and my carpenter, he is still working around the house since I hired him two years ago.  Yes, I have more energy to spare.  I don't think I was made for an ordinary stagnant life in any suburbia, either here or in France (nothing wrong with that, but let us face it, that's not me).  I loved being out there, constantly doing something different.  Constanly moving.  I loved moving around and settling in new houses and meeting new people.  Now, I am happy being a raft floating down the Mississippi River!!!! And of course, I am still gallivanting around the world, otherwise floating down the Mississippi River alone would have killed my spirit.

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