Observations on Elections and Other Events in a Small French Village

John, Sam,
Last Sunday they held municipal elections to pick a slate of “aldermen” for every town and village in France. If there is more than one slate representing e.g. left and right wings then the final slate can be a mixture of candidates. The slate of winners then nominates one of themselves as mayor. All very democratic. In our small village the former mayor did not run for re-election.
A few days before Sunday’s election the new mayor’s 59 year old wife unexpectedly had a heart attack and died. That day her brother came to the door, in tears, of my friend Jean Michel to bring him the news and collapsed in Jean Michel’s arms. Jean Michel turned white, went to the kitchen and ate some sugar to recover from the shock while his wife Josy comforted their friend
On Monday morning Josy and I went out for our daily walk and in passing we saw the gate to the mayor’s home was open and someone was working in the garden. So we went in to commiserate with and congratulate the new mayor, and found it was in fact his brother in law doing the work. He had built a very nice small fence around a large tree and planted flowers inside it in remembrance of his sister.
As we were commiserating with him we noticed that he was raking her ashes into the soil.
He told us the his brother in law and now the successful new mayor was inside resting.
The trouble is we think we have time.
I hope this find you in good health and that all is well in Perth
You know you are dead when the bills stop coming in.
John