Everything you will read on this page and website is 100% true and accurate. Only names and places had to have their name changed just in case. Thank you for reading and i'll try to make your experience as enjoyable and useful as possible. I dedicate this online book to good old friend Fabrice Catinot. If this can be used for the making of Art or Film, I'll be happy to help.
Birth and before
My father, now passed away, was a fighter who kept his creativity buried all his life as for him it was synonym to weakness.
He was born in Morocco in a Portuguese Collony, son of a very succesful business man, looked really nice and had friends all over. By being popular he developped his charm and acting skills. He was a mixture between Omar Sharif and Daniel Day Lewis in the "gangs of New York". He was extremely succesful with the opposite sex, everybody loved him, he started acting as extra in mega Productions ("Ben Hur") where his dad would help make the sets as Architect and Builder. He used to be very good at singing and was playing in his band, winning competitions all over. Local Fame (as TV wasn't there yet) made him start drinking too much. Originally because of his success with the ladies he learned to fight from very young age and realized he was pretty good at it. When he was about 18 north Africa started rebelling against the colonialists invaders and he became a full time fighter but this time to save his way of Life, his family, His home and everything he knew or had known. To help he joined the army as Scout as he could speak 12 languages and dialects. Everytime when back home he would simply fight, fight and fight and that went on for 5 years. He made quite a few ennemies, had many friends and was one of the last remaining and fighting until it was over. His Family and himself were asked to grab a suitcase and embark on a boat to Gibraltar where they settled for a bit but he couldn't stay with his Parents everyday. As they were OK he decided to go on the road with his guitar and went North. He spent time in Spain, won a few competitions (money prizes) there, then France and landed in Paris where he soon became a Local succesfull Artist with his new Band. But he was so Angry inside of having lost everything that he would simply Party, Party and Party, this was the late 50's. One of his adulating groopies was my Mum, who for Months would go to everyone of his concerts and finally managed to get close to him. Soon they had a baby but they were partying all the time so she took a job so she could pay for a nanny to take care of my big Brother John. Those nannies had up to 50 kids to take care of. My Brother and Sister landed both with the same nanny. I ended up on my own but had about 25 brothers then. 99% of those kids ended up in Orphanages or were adopted.
By Luck, my Dad won at the Horses as he played every single week the same numbers 7-13-9 for some reason and won probably about £10K for that time. So they had a choice then to get their kids back and love them, give them a great life or continue partying, drinking, having fun and that was when everyboby was having the best time of their lives in Late sixties. They decided to stop the party and get us back. But nobody knew each other, so things didn't go well at all and won't get into details to keep the mood happy :). So none of us, my brother and sister ever had parental Love, simply because no one knew then that the bond between parents and children can only happen within the first year. This would not happen nowadays with the amount of information available... Love was there but nobody knew how to show it. I waited about 30 years until i one day managed to hug my dad and i am so so proud of that and similar for my mum. This made me a very warm individual with a big heart who really don't mind a good old Hug.
My Mum who now lives happily in Paris with her new Partner (Karate Master) had 11 sisters and a Brother. Her dad was an Italian Captain who Loved her mum dearly as she was strong, sensible, sensitive and educated which is something extremely rare. My grand mother or her mum was the French Village Grammar teacher and very much loved and respected. Amazingly she could continue teaching and have 12 children... My mum always needed a strong masculine shoulder to lean on and that was my daddy. He was her Captain, Prince, music Hero, soldier of love.
Even now she still doesn't know how to show her affection and wouldn't also because of how difficult life became.
When we started school we were kept away from other kids not only because they were trying to make us do well but because they were themselves suffering from segregation/racism as by then we were living in equivalent of Harrod's neighboorhood in London but in Paris. Mum by then was taking care of us and the house while dad would go and do the most physical and well paid labouring jobs as he had Fitness and Stamina on his side and soon became team leader. Mum became an excellent cook but life was hell.
To keep us busy and quiet at home we were made to compete against each other in Math, Dictation and Drawing and guess who started winning the Drawing part. My brother would win Math and sister Dictation but we were all pretty good and keen in all 3 simply because we were top of the classes at school for those subjects. I kept on with writing short novels, do a bit of Theatre and plenty of Drawing and Singing.
Drawing and singing was our escape from the hell we were living in and I was the best at drawing, my sister Anna and will always be the best at singing (she now make kids sing) and brother the best at Math, Science and perseverance. He was and still is a born fighter who excelled in all type of fighting from street, to karate, cage fighting etc. One of his son is a professional Freerunner as he was at the gym with his dad everyday.
At school I would get involved in what i would love and doodle/draw in other classes. I would draw for money everyday with portraits, carricatures, copies of well known Paintings, Astral Themes, micro drawing...
I was also very fit and very competitive in Sports but never tried to hurt anyone (to be different i guess) or pick a fight but would wait others to do so.
I always had a huge interest for Boxing and Judo and started competing from the age of 16.
At School I would always be very independant, inventive, cheeky, quiet devil's advocate and helpful to the less advantaged kids. Everyday or at least twice a week i would find an open classroom, let those kids know, we would get in, lock the door and i would sing for them for an hour with nearly 200 songs ready to go and occasionally with my brother but for the laugh as he was tune deaf joined in. We were all keeping each other out of misery by me singing to them and them by relaxing, forgetting it all.
So already then i tried to help hundreds everyday and this was my way and only way i could make friends, through drawing or singing. People would find this out first rather than finding out how mad our family lfe was, how different we were and difference in a posh school is never good. It is always better to be an Artist than a marginal in our Society and this applies to millions in the world.
Everyday of my life I think about my sister's ability to sing even better or similar to Barbara Streisand and wish sh would want to see her family again so i can hear her sing again :(..
My brother had enough perseverance and vision ahead in anything he could have easily become a prime minister, instead he became a Martial Artist, a fighter and that just never lasts for ever but he is an exception so who know...
To conclude this chapter i would just say that we, all 3 of us, knew what had happened to our dad, what he became because of it and knew that we had to enjoy life in case things would also go bad. So we did and experienced whatever was good and bad because we could then. As Edith Piaf says: No i have no regrets, however good or bad it was, i don't regreat anything.