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My friends, my loved ones,
I am writing to you on this year-end as I drink a glass of bubbly and remember the important moments of 2019, but also the events of the last decade.
Since the year 2010, I have lived through big highs and big lows. I loved being an academic tutor and teacher in mathematics and a translator. I lived in a beautiful townhouse in Outremont where we had unforgettable dinners and where my beautiful Mousse embellished and enriched my life. We spent our summers together at Notre-Dame-du-Portage, his favorite place on the St-Lawrence River. I traveled many times to Italy and Germany, I completed a translation certificate at McGill and attended painting classes at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. But my heart was broken into a thousand pieces when my Mousse, my love, left us, pain I still feel today. I had health problems that I manage as best I can and I moved twice to finally end up in my childhood neighborhood, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, where I am content.
As for 2019, I was expecting a calm year but it was everything but. I taught my 7th grade students until the end of June suffering of an acute tendonitis in each shoulder, clippety-clopping because of arthrosis in both knees and limping due to a capsulitis in my right foot! I therefore had to call upon my best friend these days, Mademoiselle Cortisone, who enabled me to relax in Jamaica at Easter, attend the Canada F1 Grand Prix in June, to experience a month and a half of rest in Notre-Dame-du-Portage (with my VW Beetle cleverly filled with the strict minimum), to then, at my return, call Mademoiselle once again so I could live a big dream: take part in the Gran Premio di Monza and then visit Milan and be eaten alive by hundreds of starving Italian mosquitoes! You will not be surprised to learn that I neglected my paleo diet the moment I set foot on the white Jamaican sand to then bury it the moment I arrived in Monza…
Out of respect for my battered body, I took the decision not to teach during the 2019-2020 school year and at the end of November, I was able to use my arms like a normal person and bend my knees without wincing! Unfortunately, my capsulitis was more tenacious and my anti-fuck-me-boot entered my life… I was fortunately able to work on my novel, but as the Queen of England so eloquently said, it was an annus horribilis due to the suffering of certain members of my family caused by either a devastating double pneumonia provoked by the legionnaire disease, an operation for an umbilical hernia, fierce colds that would never end and even a cerebrovascular accident at a very young age.
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| December 25th, 2019! |
It was a year-end filled with anguish, uncertainty and grief, but luckily also with relief now that everybody is slowly getting over their misfortune. I must add that I am the miracle of the year not having caught anything despite days and nights spent in hospitals! I would like to thank Purell for their anticeptic products which surely had something to do with elevating me to a miracle status. I even deserve company shares having used such an enormous quantity!
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| New Year's Eve dinner |
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| Oysters, beef tartare and foie gras |
So I leave this decade behind me and look forward to 2020. I wish for myself time to write, time to heal, a nice long vacation at Notre-Dame-du-Portage (10 weeks this year) and maybe a little adventure in Italy?
After this alarming year-end, I can only wish you health, health and… health.
Big kisses to all and have a happy New Year!
Diane