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Because... and put your glasses on your nose before !

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Message  JeanPierreD Mer 3 Fév - 16:39

What could be the title of this post- stop- tell us first what it is about, otherwise we cannot help- stop- In fact, I feel a little ashamed about it- stop- Ok spit it or give up- stop-

Last Tuesday night during our regular polyglot-coffee Muriel came to me with a sheet of paper with a picture in the middle of it and a small text under it. It was the kind of sheet of paper you can find on the walls or on the posts in town from people looking for some missing loved one and desperately trying to get some information about them.

In fact, it was not that at all, or at least not exactly. Yes, someone was missing, the coffee polyglot was missing someone who died some days before. Murielle asked me whether I knew Monique, the lady on the picture, from the Italian table, who even use to run herself the Italian table every three weeks ;  I threw a quick look at the photograph and I answered her bluntly and with a strong assurance; « no I didn’t know her! » . Murielle insisted on letting the sheet of paper on the table, « for the others who would like to know » she added, and she left .

Later in the night I put my glasses on my nose and looked at the photograph more closely and what a shock! of course I knew this lady! Of course I never spoke to her more than two or three words, but when I used to meet her on this first floor of the café of Paris she used to say hello and I used to greet her with a big pleasure. She was a strong lady with, light coloured eyes, impressing to me in the way that she reminded me of an old aunt with a strong personality. I never get the opportunity to know more about Monique and to make the differences between her and my old aunt with a strong personality. I never got the opportunity to know more about Monique and to make the differences between her and my old aunt. But how could have I been able to pretend not to know her?
What means to know somebody? Big question, for me as soon as our eyes meet more than once and more than randomly we know each other. When we exchange one hello and a smile we know each other. When we share something together (such as the pleasure to speak foreign languages), of course we know each other !!!

So during a few seconds and until now I felt ashamed, like Pierre certainly felt ashamed when  asked by the roman soldiers if he knew a certain  man he  said « no » .
I sometimes boost myself of having a good memory, and there I lacked totally of memory . But what is worst is that I didn’t take the time to take my glasses out of their box in order to examine more closely the picture, and prefered to go back quickly to the lively and joyful conversation with the group of youngters .

            This little incident reminds me of something in my chilhood. In the remote hamlet of my village where we were living, sometimes we had the visit of someone who used to say : « je prie pour Monsieur Untel ou pour Madame Unetelle » . I quickly understood that it was about somebody who was dead, because the news used to stop for a short while  what my parents were doing . Before long I never asked about this habit in the village of my chilhood, I was simply a bit surprised that people praying for others who were dead wished to make it known  !   I got the answer in my twenties or perhaps a littled older ; my elder brother explained me that these people were not « praying » but inviting us ( prier ) to intend the funeral of somebody who passed away .
This was exactly what Muriel did that last Tuesday night, she wanted to make us known that somebody of the café polyglotte had passed away .
May this little post pay tribute to Monique . The italian language is a very lovely foreign language and the italian teachers are scarse and I am sure that Monique will be deeply regretted in his group of the café polyglotte and far beyond of course !
JeanPierreD
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Message  gerardM Mer 3 Fév - 19:02

Hi Jean Pierre,

You did write a very nice text.

I didn't know about Monique -with nor without glasses- but your text is moving.

~~

However (but is it appropriate?), did you read it again to fix possible mistakes?
I mean you left careless mistakes (easy ones) - a good exercise could be to find them.

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gerardM
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Message  MurielB Mer 3 Fév - 21:37

Thanks Jean-Pierre for that very moving post i will add to the ones dedicated to Monique.

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Message  Guilaine Jeu 4 Fév - 18:42

Dear Jean-Pierre,

Your text is very nice and moving. You report the anedote heartily and we can feel your empathy throughout.

Yes Monique had a strong personality.
One person said to me : "as soon as she met people she became friend with them.
And all her friends remembered her on the day of her funerals, the church was full up and they set up loudspeakers for the people outside.


Dernière édition par Guilaine le Ven 5 Fév - 17:42, édité 1 fois
Guilaine
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Message  JeanPierreD Ven 5 Fév - 15:33

Hello Gerard
Thank you for reading me and correcting me, and yes, it’s quite appropriate to point out my mistakes, because I like it and I asked for it.
Of course you can feel a little put off, because in spite of my good willing I still make a lot of mistakes and especially unforgivable mistakes. In fact, but this is not an excuse, and cannot be an excuse, I followed a piece of advice you gave me a year ago, to utilize « Reverso » in order to detect the biggest mistakes. Which I did for the first part of my text, but in the end (as we have to work with small pieces) the site refused to work!!! so I gave up and write my text as it was in my draft. These mistakes are : Roman instead of roman,  what is worse instead of is worst, polyglot instead of polyglotte, childhood instead of chilhood, little  instead of littled, Italian instead of Italien, scarce for scarse, yes these are really careless mistakes !
JeanPierreD
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