Photography and text by Corey Amaro:
French Husband's niece was eleven years old when I first met her,
twenty three years ago. It was also the first time I was to meet his family,
we were going to have lunch at his sister's Soizic's home (The day before we were to go to French Husband's, Great-Uncle's house.).
The white,
monogrammed tablecloth was set with antique wine glasses, the
silverware was lined-up a mile long next to the Limoges plates, and a
large, soup tureen transformed into a vase was filled full of flowers
and sat in the center of the old dining room table. The tabletop carried a
conversation with my understanding a word, as French Husband's family chattered
away in French, leaving me in silence, soaking up the details with delicious wonder, we sat sipping our aperitif waiting for Juliette to come downstairs: She
was late… though later I would understand being late was set up for
her stage of entrance.
I remembered that day crystal clear, not
because of the beautiful home of French Husband's sister, nor his family
that fearsomely loved their son-brother-uncle named Yann, so much so,
that they couldn't help looking at me with trepidation… No, what I
remember most is Juliette coming downstairs, wearing a colorful, silk
headband wrapped around her forehead, holding her long, dark hair in
place. She was captivating, original, and a breath of fresh air to the
stuffiness I felt in that room.
Juliette spoke perfect english,
better than French Husband's. I stared at her in disbelief, her voice
was music to my ears, and she was only eleven years old! I looked at
French Husband as to say what gives? I asked her where she had learned
to speak english. Juliette told me that she was in love with Michael
Jackson, his style, his dance and his music. Juliette went on to say
that whenever she had some money she would buy a single of his, then
listen to it over and over again, while following along with the lyrics
written on the back. Then she would look up the words in the dictionary,
memorize them, and then recreate other sentences with them. Michael
Jackson was her hero, and my new found hero that day.
The next day we went to French Husband's Great Uncle's house. I knew from the moment we walked in the door that Soizic liked antiques, like creating a home using old things, and that French Husband was uncomfortable with such an event as dividing the belongings of an Uncle he loved.
Soizic opened the linen closet as I ran upstairs to find French Husband in the attic.
He had unearthed a full set of armory, the mask, shield, sword… he said, "This is what I want. Only this."
"Really. You mean you want that in our home? Like standing in the corner next to a fern or something? Wouldn't you also like some linen?"
We walked downstairs, he had his notebook in hand, we walked by the linen closet which remained untouched. French Husband gave his note book to his cousin. She looked at it, one item without a ticket. As they talked I walked outside…. to peek in the garage.
Leave a Reply