MY OC BIO PAST
Dahae Coraline Bertrand — a brilliant journalist from France.
She has Korean, Chinese and Russian origins. Her both parents are the children of immigration.
Son Narae or Maria Bertrand as she has changed the name after her marriage was known as a talented Korean cello player. She was invited to Paris to play in the orchestra led by her future husband and the promising at that moment conductor — Peter Bertrand whose parents moved from Soviet Union to France. Unfortunately, Dahae didn’t have a chance to meet them as they passed away even before their son finished the music academy. The only grandparent Dahae had was her granny from the mom’s side, as Maria’s father suffered from cancer, and he died when Maria was pregnant with the daughter.
Dahae loves her grandmother a lot as the majority of her childhood memories are connected with grandma’s house and garden. It was Son Mun-hee who started teaching Korean for a girl so she didn’t lose this part of her cultural heritage. She wished her granddaughter to stay in South Korea but the parents were insisting on giving her the education in Europe. After giving birth to her first child, Maria finished the career of musician and opened her own business — the small chain of flower stores and gardening shops.
Her parents tried to dictate to Dahae the steps of a musician and tried to take her to the ballet school, but soon she was expelled (which made the girl very happy as she hated those classes). However, those signals from her childhood were the first steps to the feeling of disappointment around her. She didn’t live up the parental hopes even though Dahae showed some talents. At the age of 14 she knew French, English and Korean languages and she even started working at the local newspaper (of course it was part-time job and she couldn’t write there). Dahae enjoyed the atmosphere and the fuss in the publishing house. Out of school (where the girl was one of the most excellent students) if she couldn’t work, the young Dahae spent time in libraries. Her main inspiring figure became Geneviève Tabouis. It was a huge turn in the life path of the girl. She started reading works of and about Tabouis. She was a woman with such a fantastic fate. Her work was an art and strongly connected with the way of the world. Dahae realized that’s what she wanted and the maximalism of the youth turned into a volcano. She announced to her parents about her choice and they (who always tried to stay away from the political and social issues as much as possible) absolutely disagreed with their daughter’s decision. They refused to sponsor her study at the university, so she had to find a way out to study there for free. That’s where her grandmother became the only person who supported Dahae — thanks to her the young woman had a chance to study and graduate from one of the best universities in France — Paris Nanterre University. It was where her writing talent was noticed and developed.
