THURSDAY: One year anniversary of in-law’s passing, an academic with connections abroad to the same city in Europe as his daughter-in-law: he stationed there in WWII, and daughter-in-law hosted by a Jewish family forty years later. After the war, he became a professor of French in the Midwest and was known to family for extensive knowledge about European history. His daughter-in-law, whom he met sixty years after his own time as a soldier, had been a poor student in that regard and spent much of her stay walking the quais.
One regular companion was a young Congolese man whose French was easier to understand than the Alsatian locals. Her host had clarified, day one, the difference between ami and copain—an important distinction she seemed obliged to extend—but it was this Congolese who introduced the young American to pote with a small button he presented in parting cadeau.
Decades later in the Midwest, one middle-age son of the soldier (a musician) ran into a special events gigging buddy (a chef). After greetings, he introduced the new wife at his side. The other, a Congolese, turned, fixed his eyes, and said, Don’t I know you? Haven’t we met?
Friday, October 9, 2020, local, CDT:
Mercury sextile natal Pluto 2:56
Moon sextile natal Pluto 6:53
Mars 22° 30′ Rx Aries square Pluto 22° 30′ Capricorn 8:09
Chiron 6° 43′ Rx separating opposite natal Midheaven
Image: Quarter Face (Statue of Liberty), 1979, Ruffin Cooper, Brooklyn Museum