Parlez-vous Français?

I love getting feedback from Listeners and I received another request after our program Advancements in Understanding the Liver Part 1 and Part 2 aired. A Listener wrote in with a request — could we possibly translate the program into French?! Since I have not written much in French since I was a senior in high school, I knew the task was beyond my meager skills so I reached out to others I knew in the congenital heart defect (CHD) community.

It didn’t take me long at all to know who I hoped would help me. Many, many years ago, before the Internet was made more user friendly, we used to have listservs which were ways we could connect with others — the precursors to MySpace and Facebook, listservs didn’t have photos, videos or anything fancy. They were just notes sent back and forth to the group. One such group I belonged to was for parents of children with CHDs and that’s where I “met” Helen Bishop. I discovered that Helen Bishop was a French teacher and since my grandmother’s maiden name was Blanchette, and I’d studied French in high school, I felt another connection with her!

In 2010 I finally published the book The Heart of a Father which is a compilation of essays by men affected by congenital heart defects. I “met” men from all over the world and I also “met” many of their wives. One of the men who wrote an essay for the book was David Simpson. His wife Helen is a French teacher in England.

I knew I had two French teachers, who were also Heart Moms to turn to. When you get some Heart Moms on a mission, you just know things will get done! I also posted a note on the Heart to Heart with Anna Facebook page and on my own Facebook page and then I had even more people offering to help.

Dr. Wu, the Guest of the original program that started this flurry of activity, is helping me identify a French cardiologist to actually record the program. A bilingual Heart Mom is going to be the Guest Host for the program. Once Helen B. and Helen S. translate the script into French, we will move forward with recording the very first French episode of “Heart to Heart with Anna.”

One of the missions of Hearts Unite the Globe, the nonprofit organization that brings this podcast to the CHD community, is to unite the entire CHD community. Creating programs in languages other than English is a step in the right direction so that we can truly be united.