2023-08-19 09:04:28
– Isa and Gwen’s happy “Rubik’s Cube” tribe
The large, blended and rainbow family of the two Genevans includes eight children, five grandchildren and a nonagenarian great-grandmother.
Posted today at 11:04 a.m.
Didier Jordan
Throughout the summer, the “Tribune de Genève” paints a weekly portrait of a wonderful family in its own way. Check out episode 7.
A Rubik’s Cube. It is through the image of this famous cubic puzzle that Gwen, 40, and Isa, 57, symbolize their family. For its multitude of colors that swirl in all directions, but end up aligning harmoniously. Their family ticks all the atypical boxes: large, blended and rainbow (homoparental). Beyond these labels, only one is really important for these two Genevans: it is a tribe where we love each other.
Even the entrance to Isa and Gwen’s house is atypical: the door has been condemned to create WCs on the ground floor. So we enter their world through the garden. The conventional replaced by simplicity and user-friendliness; an entry in their image. Their “house of happiness”, according to Isa, has seen generations pass through this improvised door. She housed Isa’s six children: her eldest daughter, who does not wish to be publicized, Jeff, naval carpenter, Elliott, artist and teacher in the art cycle, Vaïna, administrative assistant – all four born from a first marriage –, Jayant, musician, and Maëva, still in training, fruits of a second union. The oldest is 37, the youngest 18.
Since 2018, the house has also seen Gwen’s two boys grow up, William, soon to be 13, very involved in scouts, and Darwin, 10, a fan of hockey and basketball. And it’s not over: one of the bedrooms in the house is occasionally rented out to students.
In the family photo, we must add five grandchildren, the 96-year-old mother of Isa, as well as Gwen’s Filipina “heart mother”, Tita. Organizing Christmas and birthday parties has become a real challenge. “In summer, it’s fine, we can be outside. In winter, it becomes difficult to find a place! But we manage.”
The marriage of two families
Before they walked together, Gwen and Isa charted their own paths. The first, who first worked with people with disabilities and alcohol addicts, before becoming a specialist educator with adolescents, explains that she has always had the desire to start her own family. A wish materialized with his ex-girlfriend in 2010, with the birth of William, then of Darwin two years later.
As for Isa, journalist and head of the Culture and Communication department in a town, after spending thirteen years with her first husband and nine with the second, she got into a relationship with a woman. “When I broke the news to my kids, one of my sons, then 16, said, ‘As long as mum is here and taking care of us, I can’t see where it’s going. is a problem.” Everyone easily accepted it, even if they didn’t necessarily talk about it openly at school.
It was in 2010 that the two women met for the first time. Both are then “couple and happy”, but this first contact marks them. They will only meet again seven years later, now single: “I remember exactly the moment when I saw her, I felt something very strong that upset me” says Isa. Emotion shared by Gwen: “I was completely seized. I knew she was the person of my life. Isa continues: “We were immediately connected. But it took me a few weeks to dare to fully enter into this relationship, mainly because of the age difference! But very quickly, it became obvious to me. All my relatives and my children quickly adored Gwen.
Only Maëva, then 12 years old, reacted more strongly. “I cried,” she says. Not because she was a woman, not because of the age difference, that’s irrelevant. But because I was afraid that my mom would suffer if they ever left each other.
“We gained a big sister and a big brother”
Six months after this “love at first sight”, Gwen and her two children – of whom she shares custody with her ex-partner – move into the house, with Jayant and Maeva who still live there. The union of the two families is done very spontaneously, tell the two mothers. “The children saw that we really loved each other.” “We all get along very well, abounds Maeva. And their arrival filled the empty rooms of the house with life, after the departure of the elders!” The young woman wouldn’t trade her family for anything in the world.
In this farandole of brothers and sisters, a favorite? She laughs. “I love them all very very much but I really have a special relationship with Jayant. He’s the most important person in my life.”
Darwin and William confide that when they moved in, it made them “weird” but that they quickly got used to it and that they all get along very well. The youngest shares in particular Jayant’s passion for hockey and they cross the canes in the garden. “We gained big sisters and big brothers” summarizes William.
At the beginning, the daily life of the recomposed family is particularly hyperactive, between alternating guards, “200%” work, household chores, cooking the meals that the two mothers share every other day, the activities of the children and their various meetings. The secret? A shared agenda. “It is vital! Everything is written there, they explain. We also have a “house logistics” WhatsApp group. A large family, moreover with shared custody, is a real organizational challenge. The daily is full and timed. But we always manage to find time for both of us. And to invite friends over: there is always plenty of life in our house!”
What is your family’s signature song?
“My funny life”, by Véronique Sanson. We listen to it all the time, the lyrics go well with our funny life!
The family dish par excellence?
The fajitas. Kids love it. Everyone does their own thing, just like life in our family.
An unbreakable tradition?
Skiing holidays in St-Luc. I go (editor’s note: Isa) for twenty years, sometimes we found ourselves in more than ten, between the children and their friends. It’s always a great pleasure.
William: And Christmas parties with Secret Santa (gift raffle).
A memorable memory all together?
Our wedding, June 3, 2023. We fought so hard for homosexual couples to be recognized and finally have the same rights as other couples and families, so when marriage for all was accepted, we took this chance to to be able to celebrate our love, surrounded by our children of course.
Aurelie Toninato has been a journalist for the Geneva section since 2010 and graduated from the Academy of Journalism and Media (AJM). After having covered the field of Education in particular, she is now in charge of Health, in particular Covid.More info
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