{"id":71097,"date":"2025-08-17T05:41:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T09:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/?p=71097"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:29:16","slug":"may-27-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/le-27-mai-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"May 27, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dear readers, this week\u2019s letter wasn\u2019t written by your favourite author. Instead, we handed the honour to Gigi, Mme Cora\u2019s daughter. Gigi wrote this homage to her mother on her birthday, and we\u2019re delighted to share it with you here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAY 27, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventy-eight years ago, my mother was born to a couple that married out of convenience and duty, not for love or passion. Her mother was in love with a Protestant man. That union was unacceptable to her family and to her religion. She accepted the first Catholic man willing to take her, but the groom had no idea of his new bride\u2019s despair. His joyful heart would soon be broken, his dreams of a loving family dashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother grew up in a home devoid of happiness, with a mother suffering from bi-polar disorder and a father lost in drink and sadness. She later reluctantly married a man newly arrived in Canada, carrying with him his own baggage of mental health issues and beliefs of male superiority. She was with child, and in her eyes, she had to pay for her sin of sex before marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She endured 13 years of violence, both physical and emotional. My father beat her, berated her, cheated on her and bet all his money away in card games. She left him on the day he hit me, with nothing more than the family station wagon and her purse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She worked tirelessly to support us, receiving nothing from him. He moved abroad, \u201cso that I don\u2019t kill her,\u201d he later justified. Her parents helped her with us until they both died suddenly, her father on the day of his leukemia diagnosis, and her mother in a deadly car accident. Alone to raise us, she worked 100-hour weeks for years until finally, she burnt out and spent a year on the couch trying to learn how to take care of herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date, May 27, 1987, she opened the first of what would become a beloved chain of breakfast restaurants in Canada. She worked and worked, falling asleep with recipe books on her face for three years before we sent her away on a vacation for fear she would have another burnout. When she came back from that trip to Paris, where she slept for 7 of the 10 days she was there, we were excited to show her that we hadn\u2019t poisoned any of her adored clients! \u201cFind something else to do,\u201d we clamoured. \u201cWe can run this place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did. After much exploration of what else she could do, she seized an opportunity to open a second restaurant that would delight even more customers with our, by now, spectacular breakfast offering. When she signed the lease to the new store, we celebrated around a table in our tiny 29-seat diner, the first of the chain, clinking coffee cups. We were excitedly talking over each other about the bright future before us when my mother raised her cup and declared to us, and to the universe, \u201cI\u2019m going to change the karma of my family. Maybe not my kids, but one day, my grandkids will never want for anything.\u201d That was the start of it all, her legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a child, I was so often frustrated by my mother\u2019s refusal to promise anything, for she couldn\u2019t be sure she could deliver on her promise. I didn\u2019t see it at the time, but her word meant something to her. Even a hasty promise spoken to her undiscerning children to appease them and get them off her back would be a betrayal. She wouldn\u2019t lie to us or to herself. We would later discover that her word was her superpower, her instrument of creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, my mother is 78. She has long since delivered on her word. My children want for nothing. I\u2019ve never known the pain and struggle of not knowing where my children\u2019s next meal will come from. I\u2019ve never worried about providing shelter for my children or education, or anything. I\u2019ve had the luxury of security, to heal my own wounds and to grow into the woman I am today. I\u2019ve been afforded the opportunity to create joy and growth, and discovery with my family, instead of a life of trial and survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this day, her birthday, I celebrate my mother. To this courageous warrior who gave me life and a life I love. I wish her peace in her heart, ease in her living, and knowing that she has done her work. The rest is up to us. Like many children, I\u2019ve not always seen the whole picture, and I\u2019ve cried and complained, argued and fought, resented and blamed. I do carry some shame when I confront my pettiness and impatience against the enormity of her accomplishment. I suppose that can be chalked up to immaturity and privilege. Either way, I\u2019m fully aware that my gorgeous life with all its trimmings, my beautiful, thriving children and my journey of healing and contribution, stands on the shoulders of what my mother has done with her life. Her legacy has allowed for my legacy. I am grateful and humbled, and proud and happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Mother.
I see you.
I hear you.
I honour you.
I strive to be worthy of the gifts you\u2019ve given me.
Woman to woman, I\u2019m proud of you.
I look up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gigi
\u2665\ufe0f<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear readers, this week\u2019s letter wasn\u2019t written by your favourite author. Instead, we handed the honour to Gigi, Mme Cora\u2019s daughter. Gigi wrote this homage to her mother on her birthday, and we\u2019re delighted to share it with you here. MAY 27, 2025 Seventy-eight years ago, my mother was born to a couple that married out of convenience and duty, not for love or passion. Her mother was in love with a Protestant man. That union was unacceptable to her family and to her religion. She accepted the first Catholic man willing to take her, but the groom had no idea of his new bride\u2019s despair. His joyful heart would soon be broken, his dreams of a loving family dashed. My mother grew up in a home devoid of happiness, with a mother suffering from bi-polar disorder and a father lost in drink and sadness. She later reluctantly married a man newly arrived in Canada, carrying with him his own baggage of mental health issues and beliefs of male superiority. She was with child, and in her eyes, she had to pay for her sin of sex before marriage. She endured 13 years of violence, both physical and emotional. My father beat her, berated her, cheated on her and bet all his money away in card games. She left him on the day he hit me, with nothing more than the family station wagon and her purse. She worked tirelessly to support us, receiving nothing from him. He moved abroad, \u201cso that I don\u2019t kill her,\u201d he later justified. Her parents helped her with us until they both died suddenly, her father on the day of his leukemia diagnosis, and her mother in a deadly car accident. Alone to raise us, she worked 100-hour weeks for years until finally, she\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":71098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Exceptionnellement, c'est Gigi, la fille de Mme Cora, qui prend la plume pour souligner le 27 mai, anniversaire de sa m\u00e8re et de Cora.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-71097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lettre-mme-cora"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71097"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}