A hotter than hot wedding in Romania one August 20+ years ago. Yours. Your insistence that you must remain in your groom’s suit-and-tie, even at 114F. Hottest day in Romania in something like 40 years! Commitment.
Learning how to drive together and passing our exams almost at the same. All encouraged if not forced by dad.
Living in the off-the-beach house in Costinesti all together - piled up together in one room like hippies in a commune. So young - both you and me, my sister and your brother ... Long nights in clubs - loud music and tons of vermouth.
Traveling over the years - watching each other travel and sharing impressions. Almost missing trains and planes and living to tell the tales. Oh, the stories!
Discovering Canada and sharing the acutest, sharpest pain of a 40-degree-below day ... The inability to breathe. The frost-bite-like symptoms of simply walking outside to see what the air “feels like”. It doesn’t. It just paralyzes you. The howling wind of a Quebec winter night. The insulating of the windows, taping them shut to keep the frosty air out.
Your first Canadian car with wires coming out of the dashboard. The lessons. Slow and steady till you came into your own adulthood. Then, head of a beautiful family. Becoming a dad. And me, an aunt. And then again, times two.
Both of us - watching our hair gray and our forehead wrinkles deepen. Learning, discovering. Together. And through it all sewing this long thread that unites us through the decades ...
Walking up the steep, gruesome, penance-like stairs of Mont Royal. Riding the mountain cable car in Mont Tremblant. Walking across the swinging bridge of Ste. Anne and Montmorency waterfalls. Sharing with us your favorite spots in Quebec City and Vieux Port in Montreal. Discovering Canada through your naturalized eyes. Your adoptive country. And then again, sharing my new home country back...
Riding the ferry to Toronto Island Park on Lake Ontario. Bracing the sharp, cutting wind of the Great Lakes in November.
Always enjoying delicious food along the way - everywhere. This family is nothing if not a bunch of indulging gourmands and you fit in it well. Thank goodness!
Traveling together to dad’s last birthday. The unbounded joy of togetherness, right alongside a deep sadness of the inevitable end possibly coming - the old age, the wear and tear, the loss of function in those we left behind in Romania ... Shared joys and sadness, just the same.
Winery hopping and wine and beer tastings. Indulging some more. Enjoying the simple and complex things of life. Food. Drinks. Good movies.
Discussing politics and wondering what the heck went wrong in the world. Respecting. Each other and wondering where the respect of the world was lost and how. Growing old. Together. Side by side. Our families becoming one. Our destinies united ...
Almost a whole week of Christmas cooped up in one house. Eating. Drinking. Watching too much tv. Talking. Remembering. Bonding.
How we (almost) share a birthday. Today.
All of these and more ... Memories we both made together. Adventures of the mind and body. Reminders of where we’ve been and tracing a map of what happened.
More than our shared history and memories, I love our honesty. Nothing fake. No pretense. Even when it’s hard. We speak the truth, you and I. The most precious gift! Knowing you, knowing me ... I know it will persevere in the years to come!
On your special day, I wish for more memories and more journeys. I wish that the special bond we forged over these 25+ years will continue to remind us where we’re from, where we’re going and that we’re family. And more than anything: I wish every happiness you wish for yourself!
Happy birthday, G.!
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