A strange day...

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of my grandmother's death. I went to California and she saw Ronnie for the first time the month before. We were there awhile and spend the holidays there. She was thrilled to finally have a great-grandchild, a son, of sorts. She had had two daughters (one died at age 8 weeks a few years before mother was born) and then two granddaughters. Finally, a boy. When we said goodbye, I didn't think it would be for the last time. She went into the hospital for something to do with her foot. She picked up pneumonia in the hospital and 50 years of smoking didn't help her lung capacity, though given that fact, I should be lucky she got to 92 and became, abeit briefly, a great-grandmother. I was back on the plane with Ronnie again within a week of leaving...

I remember Matthew Beer came to the funeral with us. We liked Matthew and the moral support was appreciated. I remember his pointing to date in the program and saying to Vicky and I saying "She made it". In other words, she made it into the new century, although barely.

Little did we know that Matt would leave us too, dramatically on a stairwell in Cambodia years later. He had a sudden heart attack after accepting a job over there. He had only been there a day...

What I didn't know at the time was that my mother's first husband died the same day, not date, day. We didn't find out until my sister looked him up years later, using a search engines only available to journalists. We don't know what of but he was in New Jersey. He spoke seven languages and used to work for military intelligence. He also taught. I still remember what he spoke; English, Italian, Russian, German, Spanish, French and Chinese. He admitted that he found Chinese difficult.

His daughter is Alisyn Camerota, on Fox News, which is amusing as we are NOT big Fox fans!
http://greenroom.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/05/21/big-screen/

What was funny though is that I called my grandmother "Grandy" and he was Andy. So Andy and Grandy went through the Pearly Gate on the same day...

Also, I think of both Matt and Andy as men I was actually fond of, who were important to my mom and sister early on. Neither ended up being "the one" for either of them but both men had their role to play.

(Just on a naughty amusing note, my mother often refers to my father as "my first husband" and I would of course, throw in "Really?!? I didn't know that Andy..." Then of course, mother was thrust into explaining to whatever third party was present, that she was indeed "on" no. 3...)

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We were on international news again. Instead of three buildings getting burned and riots, this time there was an attack on a Jewish cemetery on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I'm really doubting the idoits who did this were that smart. I think they just had dumb luck. I also doubt neo-nazis because even the stupidest people here hate anything German. So sorry international press!

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3840599,00.html

Yes, in Cronenbourg, of beer fame, again. It's been attacked before. Last time I wasn't worried about someone's grave. For the record, she's well away from these tombstones. I'll see her husband tomorrow so I'll double check but I think that her's was okay.

My husband's family is elsewhere, his father in his hometown 20 miles away and his mom's family is down near Colmar, almost an hours' drive south, so he doesn't have anyone to "worry" about with these attacks... we hope!

We pass it every morning going to school. I heard something on the radio, with noisy kids in the back (and yes, in a foreign language which can be harder to "absorb" still for me), Sarko condeming it, etc. I didn't hear the details. I thought to myself, can't be that one. We just passed it...

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Today I went to see an author who actually came to Strasbourg. I thought it would be a small, intimate gathering, given that she's Chinese, living in England. Wrong! There were well over 100 people in there.  There were few my age. Most were either students or elderly.

It went slowly because the translations took ages. She spoke in Chinese and a Chinese girl translated it into French. Anyone with any kind of background in this knows that it's very difficult to interpret into a foreign language (most interpreters translate into their best or native language). She even started to cry at points, very touched by Xinran's stories.

http://www.xinranbooks.co.uk/

Xinran was very funny and charming. The problem was that all those who understood Chinese laughed about 15 minutes before the rest of us "got" it. Then, Xinran switched to English. Her accent is still strong but then you could see who understood that language.

She spent most of her time talking about "China Witness", the least favorite of her books. I still haven't read two of them. Of course, Librarie Kleber (to those who don't know French, "librarie" is a bookstore) didn't have English versions of those, although plenty of China Witness, which I already read. Since I had forgotten my copy, I had nothing for her to sign. There was a huge line anyway.

I just snapped this quick photo;