Yesterday, my wife and I made the trek to France, to Macon about 70 km from Lyon following the death of my brother. I saw him last at Christmas at the wedding of our eldest son, it had been the first time in nearly 3 years. He looked younger than his 74, he had lost a lot of weight, I actually complimented him on his good looks. What I didn't know was that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is often deadly but the debility only struck at the very end. And no he didn't share the news with us!
I already said that I didn't know my brother very well due to our age difference. He graduated young and almost immediately took over the management of my parent's vineyards in France. He married before I was born. His eldest son is about 4 years older than me.
All the children and grandchildren were there, a large group that I had never really met. It was bloody freezing in Macon, far colder than in Norfolk, but such is the weather. We spent about five hours in the house, as we had planned. Time to talk with my sister-in-law, a lovely woman, my brother had two passions in life, his wife, and the vineyards. She was 18 when they married, he was just 20. He passed on his passion for wine to his third child, his eldest daughter, who is a recognized winemaker and has been running the business for the past two decades.
It's very strange because my brother (and my sister) knew my parents better than I did, I lived with them as a child, but my father's life by then was in and out of hospitals and my mother was doing ok, in the end, I was too much for her, and I lived the last year of her life as a ward of my sister (she is 20 years older than I am).
We arrived at their house just before 11 am, and we had lunch and wine. The children were all there, recounting stories about their dad over the years. Laughing instead of crying remembering the good and funny things in his life. My wife and I could only think of one thing, my brother had built an amazing business, but more importantly a fantastic family. 7 children 35 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.
Around 4, we made our way back to Lyon and our flight back home. My niece insisted that we take a few cases of wine. We were back home by 6 pm (time difference). It was nice seeing my sister-in-law and her children.
Shalom brother
Note: Again my sister-in-law always defined herself as "Je suis une Juive Francaise" I am a French Jew...what can I say to that!
Note2: yes we declared the wine on arrival, and paid the duty.
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