E’Vier en Hiver
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Since I resigned from my full time teaching job, in part to support my own children in their education, I have been relearning French. I always regretted that I never got to the point of fluency. I originally took French in high school (big up to Ms. Sullivan & Room 218, BTech) and I do have a few French speaking friends who sometimes tolerated my stumbled speech. But I never got to a place of ease in speaking, writing or reading French, as I was able to accomplish with German for the most part.
And so for the past few months I have been diligently dipping into Duolingo for 15 minutes everyday, making timid attempts to watch French Netflix series with subtitles somedays, sending the occasional French texts to my Belgian childhood BFF. I am persisting but I know that the best way to really learn a language is for me to immerse myself in a space in which it permeates. Covid-19 makes that difficult. I had started to try. I had visited Montreal and Quebec City and I so want to return…
But why this two paragraph (so far) sidebar on French? I suppose it is one of those things I have wanted to really know and apply, like photography. And yet I never quite got there.
This morning, I did a search for one of my blog posts so that I could just copy/paste the specific link & sent it to a friend (I am still avoiding the whole blog email list thing). After entering the title of the entry and not getting any results, I just entered: ena onami blog. And my website popped up but I noticed a couple of results below it and then I saw this: https://darienonline.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/now-for-evier/. I had read this heartfelt tribute by Darien Dean before but doing so again brought me back to the same torrent of feelings I experienced the first time.
E’Vier (Hiver) Leblanc remains one of the most important people I have met in my life. He had this energy about him, this comforting and loving and supportive aura. Many a time, just reasoning with him made me feel whole and accepted, like I was okay. Everything was good. E’Vier was so wonderfully alive, always exploring and searching. But he always seemed to also be affirming, listening, encouraging, recognizing the positive.
He saw in me talent and success, where I saw unfinished and mediocre endeavors, imperfection and lack of mastery. And he would just help me to see things from a different perspective. He gave so much. At times, months would go by without us talking or seeing one another. Selfishly, I would grow quietly frustrated. But as soon as we reconnected, all of that energy swiftly dissipated and it was as though no time had passed at all. E’Vier was just such a good person, such a good friend.
E’Vier was so supportive of my photography, my writing, my graduate studies. I remember how excited he was when he learned that I would be journeying to Dominica to conduct research on eco-tourism. He announced to a family member, “Yo! My friend is going to Dominica, man. She’s going to Roseau!”
E'Vier reminds me so much of Lenny. I feel as though he often said things that my uncle would have told me. Like my uncle, E’Vier had so many talents and interests, so much knowledge. Martial arts. Music. Dance. Art. He had a magnetism, a way of movement. People gravitated to him. And people gravitated to Lenny as well.
When Lenny died, it was a shock in the sense of the actual time of the event but the reason why was pretty clear. When I think of how abruptly E’Vier left, when I grasp for some sort of explanation, I have only been able to conclude that he must have been an angel.
Had Lenny lived on in physical form, I know he would have liked E’Vier.
**
And so that random duckduckgo search this morning led me back to E’Vier. The picture above was taken at my parent’s apartment with one of my mom’s paintings behind us. E’Vier really appreciated my parents, admired them as artists. I know that E’Vier would have supported and encouraged me regarding this project. And so it is fitting that the day unfolded as it did.
And E’Vier is the reason why I finally re-opened my camera case today.
