The Story of My Life so Far - Part 117 - September 1998: In Maryland to get my daughter Gaëlle back

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 116

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In the middle of September 1998, after having lost all communication with my daughter Gaëlle, who had been forced to stay with Madel, her biological mother, I decided to fly to Maryland. My goal was to try to first talk to my Gaëlle and to Madel and if necessary to serve the judgment of the BC Supreme Court to Madel.

I knew Madel's address and the name of the school where Gaëlle was attending. So, my idea was to go to the school at the end of classes in the afternoon and to find Gaëlle. Maybe then we could go back to the house, find her passport and ticket, and disappear.

If that did not work, I would find a process server to deliver the judgment to Madel. I preferred not to do this, as the judgment was referring the affidavit given by Syrille against his mother.

So, on a Friday afternoon, I went to the school and waited for the end of classes. There were a number of school buses waiting and Gaëlle was going to take one of them.

What I had not realized is that, while in British Columbia it was easy to spot a black girl, in Maryland almost half of the students were black. So, I was unable to find Gaëlle. She did not know I was at the school, so she had no reason to look for me.

After all the school buses had left, I drove quickly to Madel's house and waited for Gaëlle to arrive. I saw a school bus passing nearby, but Gaëlle was not in it. After 45 minutes, I was wondering why she had not returned home.

Then, to my surprise, I saw Madel coming home, alone in her car. As it was around 4PM, I was surprised that she had already finish work.

Not being able to find Gaëlle, I left. In the evening, I called my children in Canada and asked them if they have any news about Gaëlle and they told me that indeed they had some wonderful news: Gaëlle was flying back to Vancouver and she was arriving in two hours. Indeed that was good news!

So, the next day I flew back to British Columbia and was happy to find all my children together again.

What had happened in Maryland is that Gaëlle had told Madel that, as she was only 14, there is not much she could do, but as soon as she would be 18, she would leave and never see her in her whole life. This is when Madel realized that if she tried to keep Gaëlle in Maryland, she would definitely lose her. So, she decided to send her back to British Columbia.

Continue to Part 118

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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