Vous qui cherchez l'étoile
Vous qui vivez un rêve
Vous héros de l'espace
Au coeur plus grand que la terre
Vous donnez moi ma chance
Emmenez-moi loin d'ici
Ne partez pas sans moi laissez-moi vous suivre
Vous qui volez vers d'autres vies laissez-moi vivre
La plus belle aventure les plus beaux voyages
Qui mènent un jour sur des soleils sur des planètes d'amour

Vous les nouveaux poètes
Vous les oiseaux magiques
Vous vous allez peut-être trouver
De nouvelles musiques
Vous donnez-moi ma chance
Je veux chanter moi aussi

Ne partez pas sans moi laissez-moi vous suivre
Vous qui volez vers d'autres vies laissez-moi vivre
Le bleu de l'infini la joie d'être libre
Sur des rayons sur des soleils
Sur des chansons sur des merveilles
Et dans un ciel d'amour

Le bleu de l'infini la joie d'être libre
Vous qui cherchez une autre vie
Vous qui volez vers l'an 2000
Ne partez pas sans moi

This is one of my favorite French Céline Dion songs. It was the winner of the 1988 Eurovision contest.

Becky at GrrrlMeetsWorld wrote a post this morning about Thinking Day for the Girl Guides. It got me thinking about how we'd celebrate it in North Carolina. We'd call it International Fair Day. Each troop in the service area was to take a country and have a booth promoting it. My first year of NC Scouting, my troop was Canada. My second year, it was Guatemala. That second year, my mother was our troop leader. No one could think of the country to represent. Finally, I think I mentioned Guatemala. I had a poster promoting Guatemala from a 5^th grade project. Since the troop was dumbfounded, still, about a country, my mother went with Guatemala. She researched Guatemala and decided that at our booth, we'd sell cotton candy. She packaged cotton candy and took my poster and Viola! we were ready for International Fair Day. Our booth did very well.

The next year, my mother decided her troop would be France. My Cadette troop chose Canada. Looking back now, I'm embarrassed at how my troop presented Canada. We served cupcakes with red and white frosting. Some even had little Canadian flags on them. We didn't sell out. I took quite a few home that day. Now my mother's troop (which was my sister Nicki's troop, too) did well. Our troops were sister troops, so 709 (my mother's troop number) was near 565 (my troop). My mother had bought an industrial size barrel of French Vanilla ice cream for that day. 709 sold out of ice cream. Oh did it shame me!

My mother was an excellent Scout leader. My mother was even asked to help other troops with their projects. If she had the time, she did. She helped one troop tie-dyed t-shirts. 709 was doing it, too. So, they spent one day together doing shirts. The shameful thing about Scouting was at Bragg, it followed the Rank Game. Because my father was not an officer, some officer's wife that didn't do as much as my mother always got volunteer of the year. That would hurt my mother, knowing every troop knew of her and sought her out for help. However, my mother was acknowledged in other ways. The Paraglide, the weekly paper for Ft. Bragg, would come to her for quotes and stories. In their eyes, she was Ft. Bragg Girl Scouting. It even ran a page article on just my mother about her impact and history of Scouting. It included a family portrait.

I know there are several girls out there in the world that should know what an impact my mother made on their lives. Many of them had the chance to leave her troops after a year. Many of the girls stayed with her until she stopped Scouting, and we moved from Bragg.

I miss my mother.

[♪ Listening to: "A Matter Of Trust" - Billy Joel]

Posted by Shawn at February 18, 2006 11:21 AM in General, Memories.