Flower of Heaven (16 page)

On May 20, there was only one flight that went to Banra and it departed at 7:00 a.m. that morning. Françoise was extremely nervous as she boarded the plane for the five-hour flight. Had she made a foolish decision, would Ahmad really be at the airport in Banra to greet her, or would she be totally devastated if no one appeared there? She suddenly had an urge to get off the plane when the roar of the engines began and the plane started to taxi toward the runway. This seemed to calm her down as she sat back in her seat. Her decision had been made and in her heart she knew that Ahmad would be there.

When the plane finally arrived several hours later, she headed down the staircase toward the small terminal. Before she passed through the outside glass doors, two attendants stood at attention and both doors were opened by them as she entered the terminal. A crowd of people immediately could be seen gazing at her as they suddenly cleared an opening for her to reveal Ahmad standing there in his most regal attire and a smile that made her realize that this truly was the man of her dreams.

As she approached, he extended both hands toward Françoise and, in a manner hardly seen by the local Khatamorans, he kissed her and held her in his arms for quite some time. The buzz in the crowd and the warmth shown by Ahmad caused the people to break out in a loud applause and cheer; their prince had finally found his mate.

While still in an embrace, Ahmad whispered in Françoise’s ear, “Welcome home, my princess, welcome to the flower of heaven.”

In June and July of that year, Françoise began to seriously get involved in the country and began assembling an agenda of items that she believed would become topics of discussion with Ahmad and his father after their wedding, areas that mainly concerned the rights and opportunities, or lack thereof, for the women of Khatamori. She visited schools, hospitals, mosques, and many business establishments in several cities outside Banra and quickly became recognized as the Madame Princess by many at first who were cautious in dealing with her but, eventually, Princess Farah gained respect that often eluded women in the kingdom. The name Farah was chosen because it meant “joy and happiness” in Arabic and that is what she wanted to convey to the people. Fatam was very pleased with Princess Farah and could see many of the same feisty qualities in her that he had seen in Ahmad’s mother. It was like the spirit of his wife had been reawakened.

Over the next several years, although Fatam’s wishes for a successor to Ahmad had not occurred, Farah continued to please both Ahmad and his father in her role as the crusader for women. Khatamoran men, however, were not so enthused at losing control of their virtual women in bondage. Answa, in particular, found that all three of his wives constantly spoke the praises of Farah for the new things they were now allowed to do like driving a car, not covering their faces with a veil all the time in public, attending school, and even serving as spokespersons for businesses throughout the kingdom. Farah had assembled a team of advisors who continually sought to introduce new ventures for women. All the women adored her. Answa, on the other hand, wondered why a woman, a foreigner so concerned about the rights of women beyond their duties as mothers and loyal servants to their husbands, had no children of her own after years of marriage to Ahmad. His curiosity would lead him to Paris eventually, the place where the relationship first began. This investigation would uncover Farah’s past in due time.

In 1986, nearly thirty years later, King Fatam passed away in his sleep at the age of eighty-five. It was not unexpected but, nevertheless, Khatamorans mourned the death of their beloved leader for weeks until the coronation of Ahmad as the new ruler to succeed his father. Ahmad, in recent years, had not been well as he suffered from kidney problems, a reason most people attributed to his inability to procreate a direct heir in the family. Farah’s physical health did not indicate a problem in her ability to bear children. Answa now, however, knew differently.

.

CHAPTER 15

Carl and Judy Elliott had been married for nearly five years by 1952. Carl worked for a large glass manufacturer in Elmira, New York, after accepting an engineering position with the company right out of college from the University of Rhode Island in 1947.

Carl’s career had a lot of promise as he was perceived by management as a hard worker ready to take on any assignment thrown his way. He first was assigned to a supervisory position on the second shift at the plant and his efficiency and production results soon caught the attention of his plant manager, Tony Almeida. Carl was soon transferred to the main day shift where the plant ran more at full capacity than the evening shift. After a few years, Carl’s continued performance led to his promotion to Assistant Plant Manager. The only thing that seemed to be missing in Carl and Judy’s life was the fact that they had not been blessed with any children. Following recent tests to determine if anything was genetically wrong with their ability to have children, the Elliotts were told that nothing was wrong and that, at times, couples can go for years trying to conceive, but with no success. Carl’s wife, Judy, suffered from mild depression each time the conversation at dinner parties turned to children and most of their guests bragged about their own.

Perhaps believing that a change of scenery might help her, Judy welcomed the news from Carl that he had accepted an assignment to assist the company in opening a glass plant in Paris, France. Carl would likely spend one year getting the operation up and running at which time he would be reassigned to a new position back in the States. Carl saw this as a huge opportunity and one where the rewards could enable him to move up the corporate ladder faster than he even anticipated.

In May of that year, the Elliotts arrived in the City of Lights and moved into spacious accommodations in a six-room, two-story apartment on rue du Temple, just a short walk to the Hotel de Ville. Carl’s company had provided for these living quarters at no charge and the money the Elliotts saved by not having to pay rent would go a long way to increasing their finances. The extra money would allow Carl and Judy to purchase a home when they returned to New York in the summer of 1953.

May is lovely in Paris as blossoms begin to appear and sunny warmer days become more common as each day passes. As part of the company policy, all employees and spouses who were assigned to a foreign location were asked to take a complete physical examination with the local company doctor shortly after arriving to that country. It was no different for the company’s location in Paris and on this spring day, the Elliotts headed to the company doctor’s office for the routine exam. The office of Dr. Jean-Louis Matthieu, a general practitioner in Paris, was located a short walk from the Elliotts’ apartment. Dr. Matthieu had a regular local practice but had also obtained the contract for the company physicals after having met a company official at a social gathering in the early stages of planning for the upcoming plant opening.

“Have either of you any particular conditions or ailments that you would like to tell me about?” exclaimed Dr. Matthieu, “as I find all your physical conditions to be in order.”

Carl and Judy looked quizzically at each other and hesitated for a moment before Judy blurted, “We seem to be having difficulty in having a child and our doctor in the US found no reason for this.”

Dr. Matthieu concurred that these things happen among couples often only to one day discover that the wife has finally become pregnant, perhaps even many years later when all hope had been lost at ever conceiving.

“Of course,” Dr. Matthieu mentioned, “you could always adopt a child if all else fails and you really want children. Even if you eventually become pregnant, the worse that it would be is that you’d have another child instead of just one. Adopting is quite easy in Paris these days and the orphanages are filled with children, even babies, hoping to become part of some loving family. Why just the other day, I delivered twins to a young mother who was unmarried and could not provide for the babies, so she planned to give them up for adoption at the Orphanage of the Sisters of Mercy in Giverny. There are children there all the way up to twelve years old who have never been adopted. Et bien, something to consider.”

Carl knew that Judy believed she was less of a woman because of this and sex in the household was rare. Instead, Carl delved into his work at the plant and often arrived home late for dinner in the evening. This would upset Judy all the more since the one exciting moment of her day was preparing a large dinner for the two of them on most nights. Fridays and Saturdays were usually spent at some local restaurants with other American couples also temporarily assigned to Paris.

On this particular day in early August, Carl cheerily entered the apartment with a bouquet of fresh flowers from a street vendor and smiled broadly as he kissed his wife on both cheeks, a French custom he rather liked.

Judy was somewhat startled and blurted out, “And to what do I owe these lovely flowers to, Mr. Elliott? Did you get a raise or did you get news that we’re being transferred back to Elmira sooner than you thought?”

Carl shrugged at the sarcasm as quickly as it came from Judy’s lips. “Judy, my love, we were talking at lunch today, a bunch of us and some local guys, and Henri Latour showed me pictures of his two kids, two gorgeous little girls, ages five and seven. It seems that they didn’t have children of their own until just a few years ago. His wife had been part of the French underground during the war, had been shot, but somehow survived. Since then, they couldn’t have children and decided to adopt the two girls from that same orphanage that Dr. Matthieu mentioned. Henri tells me that since the war, the orphanage has more children than it can handle and welcomes good couples who are interested in adopting children. They have children of all young ages, even babies and, I was wondering if, maybe, we could just visit there and…”, his voice trailed off as quietly as the sound of a distant train.

“Oh, Carl, what are you saying, how are they going to allow Americans to even think about adopting a local child. There must be rules against this over here,” Judy shot back. “You and I raising a family would be wonderful and I would love nothing better having my own.”

“So would I, Judy, my love, so would I. Henri tells me that it’s been done before, through the blessing of the American Embassy and the French government. The nuns go by the rules and Henri can set us up to visit the place next week if we want. C’mon, sweetie, let’s do something to light that spark in our marriage again.

The following day, Carl asked Henri to call the orphanage to see if it was possible for them to visit on Saturday or Sunday. As Henri made the telephone call, you could sense the anxiety on Carl’s face as he awaited Henri’s response following what seemed like thirty minutes on the phone with one of the nuns from the orphanage. There would be many questions to answer and someone had to accompany the Elliotts to the orphanage since they did not speak enough fluent French to get by yet. Henri volunteered to help out.

That August, the Elliotts adopted an infant from the orphanage and named him Robert Conrad Elliott, deciding not to change the first name that had been given to the child by the natural mother. Judy’s eyes beamed as she held her new baby and Carl could immediately see the wonderful effect that this had on the couple. The Elliotts were now a family and no one in the US would even know that their child was adopted, not that it mattered. Robert was truly now part of the Elliott family.

Over the next several months, Carl noticed how happy Judy was tending to her new baby. Carl could notice himself breaking away from work on occasion just to rush home and spend time with their new addition. The new bonding made the months fly by and Carl was amazed at how quickly his stay in France had passed. This calmness and elated behavior from Judy enabled Carl to focus more clearly on setting up the operations of the new glass plant much sooner than even he anticipated. As a result of completing his assignment by March, 1953, rather than June of that year, Carl’s company rewarded the Elliotts with a return passage to the United States on the Queen Mary luxury liner, a beautiful ending to a wonderful year.

Upon his return to Elmira, Carl was immediately assigned to head the company’s specialty glass operations in Louisville, Kentucky, a much larger facility than the Elmira plant. The glass manufactured in Louisville was for fireplace inserts, sliding glass doors, windshields, and other specific usages and involved a diverse sales force and many different markets. Carl was pleased and the three of them headed for Kentucky within the next month.

Over the following ten years, the Elliotts raised Robert and his younger brother Ben. Ironically, Judy became pregnant just two years after adopting Robert. Bob Elliott was a natural athlete, joining the local little league at age eight and getting better and better as each season passed. By the time he was fifteen, Bob had grown to nearly six feet tall and was quite muscular. As he prepared to enter high school after graduating from St. Mary’s Junior High, Bob was not only a top baseball player, but his height naturally took him to playing basketball as well. Louisville South was a huge high school and Bob’s warm and loving personality and talent enabled him to excel in both sports and academics. After graduating as the class valedictorian in 1970, he headed for Louisville University on a full scholarship, agreeing to play both basketball and baseball there. It was during his freshman year at Louisville that Bob met Julie Laflamme, a pre-med major from Somerville, Massachusetts. Julie’s tough academic schedule did not allow her to attend many sporting events but it was just what Bob needed, someone who liked him for the person he was rather than because he was a varsity athlete. They fell madly in love and tried deeply not to let their passion for each other interfere with each of their professional plans as graduation approached in 1974.