When I was 5 years old, my family went to Belgium for my dad's sabbatical (1979-80, for those of you who are counting). We lived in half of an old farmhouse in the small town of Soiron. The people who lived in the other half of the farmhouse were two sisters (Lolotte and Mimi) and a brother (Jose) Mellignon. Kudos to my mom for taking care of 4 children in the country with one bathroom and no washing machine!
I don't remember too many specifics of that year, beyond a distinct memory of waking up the first morning in my new bedroom. But the overall experience is imbued with wonderful, warm memories. I've been back to Belgium many times since 1980 to visit with our friends and revisit Soiron. This was my first visit since all of the Mellignons passed away. I wanted to see everything one more time and visit their grave specifically to pay my respects to Lolotte, who was one of the kindest, most selfless people I have ever had the honor to know.
We drove from our B&B to Soiron and found the center of town, which is really the intersection of 2 streets. We saw the 3 room school where the 4 Morsses were educated. It now has a few more rooms, but is still easily recognizable. We saw a boulangerie there, but I knew it wasn't the right one. So we drove a bit out of town and found the right one! My goal was a Gateau de Verviers, a yeast cake (I think) with these special sugar cubes in it. Success! Here we are outside the boulangerie with our treasures.
Picture 1: Joey imitating an Abercrombie model (if you ignore the too short pants-- who knew he would grow so much!) and Sammy saying "I don't want to take a picture"
Picture 2: Joey picture face and Sammy at least with his eyes open
The Gateau de Verviers was not the best I ever had (maybe you're not supposed to buy them at 10 AM), but we still consumed nearly the entire thing before arriving at our next destination (which was about 5 minutes away)- the very house where we lived.
Here it is!
My overall impression: much smaller than I remembered, especially the door! We lived in the right side, and the Mellignons lived in the left side. Here are some other pictures to prove we were there...
I thought this was a nice picture, but apparently we have some crazy face going on.
From there, we took a little walk down one of the cow paths. Muddy, wet, lined with blackberry bushes. Just like the olden days!
We then walked down the road (which is now paved - was gravel in 1980) to admire the view (alas it was cloudy) and feed the donkeys some carrots.
These fields were often full of cows when we lived there. Donkeys aren't awesome, but they smell better than cows. And they make a crazy noise that sounds absolutely nothing like Hee Haw!
We then walked up the road to feed some goats and ponies and have some nice views back at the Soiron house.
It was great to share these memories with Jay and the kids. When we get back to the US, we will look at the Belgium photo album so they can see everything as it was back then.
The next stop was Verviers. The Mellignons had an apartment in Verviers, which we drove near. But I really wanted to go to the grave. Jay took the kids to a playground after dropping me off at the cemetery. There they met an old woman with a dog who loved Lanna. Despite Jay not speaking any French and her not speaking any English, Jay figured out that the dog's name was Gentille (which is nice in French). I think the woman was just saying that her dog was nice. Although she may have named her dog "Nice." Stranger things have happened.
Back at the cemetery, the grave was simple. They always had dachshunds (so began my life-long love of dogs), and I wish I had brought a little dog figurine to leave at the grave. I'd just like anyone who walks by the grave to know that she was loved.
We then stopped at the Delhaize supermarket in Verviers. When I went to visit Belgium, I would go there with Lolotte and she would take me to the candy aisle and tell me to pick out whatever I wanted! My kids were excited to do the same! We didn't quite buy all the chocolate there, but we tried. We then headed back to our little B&B, and the boys played outside with their new paratroopers from Bastogne. They were full of smiles (and Belgian chocolate).
It was a good day, but a hard day. Soiron is full of amazing memories for me. It's just hard to be there without Lolotte or my dad. My dad has been in my mind this whole trip. Without his influence, I would never have had a love of traveling and exploring instilled in me at such a young age. While his absence is so painful, I hope he would be pleased to see us exploring Europe with our young children and hopefully teaching them to be world travelers themselves someday.
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