Yet, Florian’s personal history is both universal, as well as particular to his small town suburb of Oullins.
The Universals
His first smell was of pan-fried potatoes that his mother prepared two or three times a week.
His earliest touch and smell were the used sheets, and most memorably submarine toys in his bathtub, and how he enjoyed putting his head under water.
Florian says, “My father was an autodidact; he joined the hospital as a secretary, and at the end of his life, he had risen to the position of being the manager of personnel, of the nonmedical crew at the local hospital.
“One of Father’s avocations was world music, and he became the first director of the world music festival in a small village. where he and his family used to spend their weekends. The program celebrated dance music and songs, from Peru, Brittany, Africa, Spain, and Bavaria.
“He succumbed at age 61 to cancer of the lungs—having smoked cigarettes most of his adult life.
“Father’s legacy, is being celebrated by us, particularly by me and my two sisters.
“Muriel, seven years older, wanted to be a doctor; circumstances made her settle for nursing.
“Eliette, nine years older, wanted to leave home at 18, and so went to work as a secretary at the Cancer Hospital.
“And I, who was thought to be the baby of the family, was to be the upholder of Father’s legacy.
“He pushed me as his son, and I earned a PhD. My book is called, The Invention of the Environment in France.
The Particulars
But Florian’s main work in his own life has been to adjust to being the first intellectual in a family of non-intellectuals. And having traveled and studied in the United States, at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; having married an American woman; having a son, Zaccharie; and being divorced (a first in his Roman Catholic family); he had to struggle hard to get back to being a member of an extended, nonintellectual, Roman Catholic suburban family. To say the least, it was challenging.
“My marrying an American woman, and my getting divorced were both new experiences for my family, but eventually, these had a liberating influence on some of them, too.
“An important experience of my life is my son Zaccharie. He is disabled, but I get to be with him for a month or so, at a time in France or in Ithaca.
“To my surprise, I found that divorce is contagious.
“But first, my own divorce had to be absorbed into the life of the family. And now, my sister Muriel may be separating from her husband. My second sister thinks that I started the trend.
“A major factor has entered mother’s life: With my encouragement, she has found a new boyfriend at age 73.
“She had been a grieving widow. But having moved back to Oullins, and having found an apartment, she has a new life, and a new partner.
“My own life has no worries; I am home to the life of my native place,” he says.
The Universal and the Particular
As it would be in most parts of the world, the male heir to the father’s legacy, Florian Charvolin, brings home to the rest of his family the best In Memoriam to his originator’s life on the 20th anniversary of his passing.
This is personal history that people anywhere can enter. He finds the universal in the particulars of his father’s life, for himself, and for the rest of the family.
Florian says, “In Memoriam: Our extended family of 24 persons (six uncles, six aunts, grandchildren, my mother and her new partner, my two sisters, their children, and husbands) may celebrate the 20th anniversary of Father’s death by sharing his great love for world music around the making of a CD of world music celebrating ‘father’ in many different cultures.”
