I was born on April 1st 1820 in a little town called Turenne Corrèze. I lived in a farm with my parents, brothers, and sister. I am the youngest in the family, we were 2 girls and 4 boys. We were a lovely family. Our world was so simple. We just helped our parents work in the farm and clean the house.One day our father decided to give us a big surprise when, he told us that we had enough money to go to Paris All of us were so happy and excited that, the next day we were ready to go there. The sight was fantastic; France is such a wonderful place. We had so much fun traveling by carriage. Everyone was singing and playing. I could never forget those beautiful days. When we arrived to Paris, everyone was amazed by the architecture of the city and all the people were so elegant and clean. My siblings and I were so excited; it was our first time in Paris! It was the best experience I had with my family. We stayed there two weeks! But, when it was time to come back home, no one wanted to leave, but sadly we did. When we arrived home, all of us were tired and groggy. We went to our beds and rapidly fell sound asleep. Those were the only days I could say that happiness was around the corner. However, I wasn’t prepared for all the things I was about to face.

Three months later a bug tragedy hit my life, and that tragedy is called Cholera, my parents got it, my brothers and sister were worried about them, so we called the doctor. When he finished checking them, he told us that it was a must for us to leave the house. Our parents didn’t want to transmit us the disease. We were petrified, but we understood the wishes of our parents, so we had to obey them. We wanted to say “good bye “to them, but the doctor said “it is impossible! For your health it will be better not to get close” we were so frustrated, why us? Why them? We didn’t understand why that was happening in our lives, suddenly, my older brother Albert said: “we don’t want to move, but we have to. Please understand that they only want us to be safe, so take all your clothes and wash it now, including the one we are wearing now, we are leaving as soon as it gets dry. No one will sleep in the house. We will sleep in the garden. Tomorrow we will move to Uncle Ralph’s house”. The doctor left and we did what Albert said. I was only 12 years old when that happened.

The next day, we took our clothes and we were ready to go to our uncle’s home. With a broken heart, we left our parents,while we were crying all the way to our new “home”. When we were near “home,” Albert stopped us and said: “We all need to calm down, God is proving us! We need to believe more in HIM!” we understood that, when arrived at uncle´s home , we knocked the door and our cousin Stephan opened the door, he was very surprised , we told him everything that just happened and immediately he called our uncle. He came as fast as he could. He asked how our father was. Since he was his little brother, he was very worried. We said what we knew and he permitted us to live with them, and that our job would be to help him in his farm and to sell his products. We were happy and sad at the same time because we found a new home , but we couldn’t see our parents anymore. Two weeks later we received a letter from the doctor who checked our parents, and the letter said:

Dear family Rousselle, I’m hearty sorry for telling you this but, unfortunately your parents died. My sincere condolences I did what I could to cure them, but it wasn’t enough. However, I know that God is perfect and he does a lot to take care of us. I know that your parents were good Christians and they tried to give you all what they could as education and religion. They did an excellent job with you dear. Your parents are now in the grace of our merciful God. My best wishes hoping you are all healthy. May the Lord be with you.

Doctor Marshall.