Title - Biography of a Friendship
Author - MARIE-CLAUDE ARNOTT
Genre - NONFICTION – MEMOIR
Publisher – TULE PUBLISHING
Book Blurb –
Their friendship was a defining constant in their lives...
When Marie-Claude (MC) met Juliette in an office in Switzerland, she was starting a new job. Juliette was already established, sophisticated, and refreshingly blunt. The younger MC was drawn to Juliette’s wit and zest for life, and they quickly became friends. Even when careers, marriages, motherhood, moves, and tragedy separated them across decades and continents, their friendship thrived.
Then came the day when MC saw a shocking photo of a gaunt-looking Juliette. She pleaded for her friend to visit a doctor, but neither was prepared for the devastating diagnosis: pancreatic cancer.
Both women were crushed but determined to make the most of their remaining months together. MC visited Juliette in France and later Switzerland, where MC agreed to accompany Juliette on her final journey. As the two friends discussed their friendship, lives, and views on death, MC was consumed by doubt. How can she be the friend Juliette needs?
“Being a part of Juliette’s conversation” was her answer, and her last gift to Juliette is this beautiful story of their friendship.
Excerpt –
I look out the window as if it were the last time and see it for the first time. Nature plays with my mind even from the sofa where I lie. I don’t hear the chirping of the sparrows sipping in the fountain, but I hear it in my head, and the hummingbird fluttering over a salvia bloom reminds me that blooming perennials always linger through California’s mild winters. Even the garden is in transition, neither dormant nor growing.
I ponder the dualities in life and its conundrums. I take in details, as in before it might be too late. Is this happening to her too? I can’t bear to think of her by name. I can’t bear the reason I’ll fly to Geneva in a few days.
This is why I take my mind back to the natural world. To the deer betting on a new rosebud behind the wrought-iron fence. To the wild turkeys and the gobbling of a courting male interrupting their cryptic cackles. To the sneaking coyote obsessed with a limping fawn protected by two determined does. And I get it. For a coyote to keep on living, a limping fawn may die.
As I gaze out the window, the dry grasses will soon morph into a landscape of green pastures and black cattle. The prospect of their return is reassuring, as the evidence that life will go on as usual. Yet going on never means that things stay the same.
When the first farmers came to the Far West in the late 1800s, California’s rolling hills stayed green through late summer until they imported a Mediterranean type of grass. When the invasion became evident, it was too late; the landscape had morphed into the iconic golden hills we see today. That’s what happens with cancer, except that it’s an uninvited parasite that doesn’t let go, even if only psychologically.
I am no stranger to impermanence with my regular trips between Canada, California, France, and Switzerland, where my friend is waiting for me. Nor after mothering a blended family. Nor after graduating from university after a midlife crisis. I tend to resist change now, but by all accounts, whether it’s a perennial plant that will die someday or an acquired work culture overcome by a pandemic, much in life is temporary.
Each day has a beginning and an end, and I am ending this day of February 2014 knowing that, in a few days, I’ll be in Geneva to ‘accompany’ my friend. That’s what she said, and I have never done this before. What happens when your friend has a short time to live? I don’t know.
Buy Links –
My website: https://marieclaudearnott.com/
Author Biography –
Marie-Claude Arnott grew up in France near Geneva, Switzerland. As a young teenager penning expressive letters to her best friend’s father, in a long-term care facility, she was told she should be a writer.
Instead, she studied foreign languages. Later, attending university in the U.S. revived her passion for writing. She holds a B.A. in International Studies and a diploma from the London School of Journalism.
She wrote for digital and print publications, including an award-winning digital travel magazine.
She is a member of the Federation of BC Writers, and the International Women’s Writing Guild.
Her next book is in the works: a novel inspired by a true story set in Spain where she lived part of the time – unless she completes her collection of nonfiction short stories, first.
She lives with her husband in Vancouver, BC, and often visits her family in California and France.
Golf, her garden, the sunsets of the Northwest, the fun of fashion, and traditional French pastries are a few of her favorite things.
Social Media Links –
Facebook – The Writing Keys - https://www.facebook.com/marie.claude.arnott.writing
Pinterest – https://ca.pinterest.com/mcawrites/
Book board in progress