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4/26/2015
When Nathalie Masse talks to her daughter Lea Mohally in French, Lea replies in English.
For a 3-and-a-half-year-old girl, Lea is well on her way to becoming bilingual. This is more than just a testimony to her mother’s upbringing in French-speaking Canada; it is a commitment to the future that no one expected when Lea was diagnosed at 6 months with a brain tumor.
This year, Lea celebrates after being out of treatment for two years.
Like any young child her age, she is full of dreams. On this particular day, after having returned from the French-American School in Jersey City, she tries to draw the apple she has already half-devoured. At the same time, she talks up a storm about how she feels (“I feel good”) and about expecting soon to have a new baby sister (“Mommy has a baby sister in her belly”).
Born in Hoboken, Lea and her mother, father, and younger sister live in downtown Jersey City.
“We wanted more space,” Masse explains.
The fact that the French-American School is nearby is an added blessing. Masse wants to maintain connection with her French Canadian past, even though she fell in love with an Irishman from Hoboken.
Lea is a French name (and not chosen after the princess from “Star Wars”) and part of an agreement she and her husband have.
“We agreed to give our girl children French names, and our boys, Irish names,” Masse says.
Since they have two daughters and another on the way, Masse got the better of the deal.
