Travel 2017—Day 0 | The Aviator’s Daughter

My father was not an aviator but rather an air mechanic still I must confess that whenever I am on a flight and literally scared to death during take-off, I am without fail thinking of him and saying to myself: what a pity for an aviator’s daughter…

I rarely spent moments alone with my father. And to be honest, he was no chatterbox. But still, we were very much alike: both avid readers, curious about everything, loving history and travels. I believe he would have enjoyed my genealogy stories. There is one thing I will always regret though: not having made a trip with him once I became an adult.

A childhood memory crossed my mind the other day. We were vacationing in Nominingue. That summer, my mother just started a new job and was not allowed to take any time off. We would thus get her at the village train station on Fridays and drive her back there on Sundays. These weekends went by way too fast and my father soon got overwhelmed by these challenging parental responsibilities. Therefore, he urged my mother to bring us back home in the city one week ahead of schedule, for that he needed his rest. We—the three children—were somewhat tumultuous for him. I cried and begged, I wanted to stay with him. I guess I somehow struck the right chord as he suddenly changed his mind when I said that I could help him with the dishes. [That is probably here that my sister will be laughing out loud.]

This is how—as my siblings were making their first trip on a train en route for Montréal—I spent a whole week in Nominingue alone with my father. Surprisingly, I do not recall much of the end of this vacation, but I do remember very well the car trip back home, as he would ask me to shoot with his 8 mm camera the Laurentian mountains which my mother was so fond of. I felt it was kind of touching then.

I am writing all this to let you know that I am travelling again for new genealogical adventures. By the time you read this, I will no doubt have managed with my typical thoughts about my aviator father and I will be at the destination.

Do you have any idea where I am? Well, if you expect me to be in a place where there are either archives, a library or both, you are on the right track.

Need some time to figure it out? No problem, I will be back tomorrow.

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