We first got into contact with his mom, Nicole Boumaâza, through my mother's ex-partner, who was friends with Mrs. Boumaâza for a long while. When the two of them were introduced to one another, they immediately got along well. After that, she took us on a behind-the-scenes trip to the Boekenbeurs, which is a book expo and is as exciting as it sounds (v. exciting except not when you're twelve years old (this was long ago).) Over the course of their friendship, we figured out that Nicole's ex-husband knew my mom's father and they kept in touch, partly in light of this info, over the phone and Facebook and stuff, because their connection was apparently more profound than anybody thought? I don't know all the deets.
This was before Athene's stuff even took off. Way later, we were watching this video on youtube:
Reeeeealy amazing. Really! Motherfuckers! We recongised her almost immediately and went a little crazy because, you know, this woman has been showing in all our lives so often, but also so rarely that it's really getting funny by now! It was amazing to get a gift which really made the Boumaâza story go full circle.