Love Cake

A Very Special Serving Dish ♥

Gaetan Tyler was a very talented tailor who worked on multiple projects at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens De Montréal. He used to live right next to our convenience store and became very close to our family. My mother would get her traditional Cambodian corsets made by him in exchange for some groceries that they would tally up against the costume construction cost.

Gaetan is the one who made most of my curtains, duvet cover and shower curtains in my entire house. Everywhere I look, I think of him. He was instrumental for helping me build this cozy home. He will be greatly missed. He left this world a couple years ago already and I only found out nearly a year after, since my mother didn't want to upset me. I had no clue he passed away as I moved to the D.C area,

so I never really had full closure on what truly happened to him.

As our wedding anniversary is approaching, my heart and thoughts go to him even more. He also made all of my seven wedding dresses and traditional corsets. (*this post is more difficult to write than I expected....sigh). I miss him. As a wedding gift, he offered me a very valuable serving dish that was passed along for generations in his family. I felt so honored to have received this crystal serving dish, with a silver rim and loaded with symbols for a prosperous mariage. If I recall his words correctly, the fish, olives, the rose and the root represent romance, fertility, prosperity and health. As his life partner and him didn't plan on adopting any children, Gaetan decided to pass along his family tradition to me so I can pass it on to my own children later on.

May your soul rest in peace my dear friend. We all really miss you, but thankfully, we are surrounded by your astounding work all around us, along with many fond memories. :)

This was a song he used to hum to me often while coming to our store...