1965 Hastière, birth of Renaud
54
Letter from Claude to his parents, October 1965
Hasterie
...Renaud learns the art of living very slowly. He laughs at the shrapnel and when I put it in the garden on a blanket, he makes the barrel and thus runs along a good distance. He is very cheerful and it is really a joy for the whole family to look at him and to tweet with him. This little child now has long nights until 8am and he sits almost alone. He always likes to look at himself in the ice.
Frédéric's still in this school. (Bellevue College in Dinant) where we work and grow. What is learned and done is in a thorough and methodical way. We're pretty demanding with the kids and it didn't hurt Frédéric to sometimes get a little sloppy notes so he understands that we have to do things. He is not at all full of work in the evening, only a duty and sometimes a lesson.
Our big Christophe is still a little distracted... and Martin is very conscientious.
Yves went to a convention in Germany for a little week. I had to accompany him, but the child care workers didn't get very well arranged .. and then in the background I am so "mother" with Renaud that I would have been saddened and worried to leave him....
______________________
Letter from Claude to Vonette, October 1965
Hasterie
...the splendor of this autumn would make the whole earth optimistic and for a few days I have been in my garden with Renaud who keeps me company. But I am not lacking in work, because I am both nursed, teacher, cook, laundry, laundry woman, with very precarious help that comes from time to time. I forget to say that I am also a gardener (for the moment it is about turning the vegetable garden to extract potatoes) – and moreover it is necessary that I be an elegant and neat woman and model wife. What a job. And then a sports woman, since I got back to gymnastics and horse riding.
The kids are fine. Frédéric has been used to taking the train every day and he eats "fries" twice a week in the canteen, which is the peak of the treat. But what makes me particularly happy is that the studies are excellent, and the books so interesting that we would like to be a schoolgirl again.
Christophe and Martin always go to the school of Hastière – by bicycle – because they said it was too far away. Christophe learns a lot of lessons by heart and does his duties conscientiously. When to Martin he learns to read and it is not so easy.
But the most wonderful of all is Renaud, it's my smile and my rest....
