The mole she wears like a jewel on the top of her forehead also appeared in her father’s house some 20 years ago – but he had it removed. At the time, Morgan Spengler and Jacques Ettel did not know each other. “Since I was little, I felt that there was a secret about my birth,” says the 46-year-old Strasbourg woman, today burlesque artist known as Champagne Mademoiselle and jazz singer , especially in the Choucrouterie troop. Of Martinican origin through her mother, she is the only one to have blue eyes, which are sometimes hinted at in a hushed voice.
“Now tell me”
The death of her paternal grandfather Marcel Spengler, when she was 24, acts as a trigger. “Now tell me,” she asks her mother. Who confirms: yes, the one she calls daddy, who raised her and gave her his name, is not her biological father. She gives him some clues, partly wrong: “His name is Claude Ettel, he is a jazz pianist and you have his eyes. “At the time, the young woman was looking for her way and hesitated to get into music:” This info changed everything. “
At the same time as her career, she began a sustained quest for this famous “Claude”, but in vain. “Then I met my husband [Vincent Faller], I had two daughters [aujourd’hui 11 et 4 ans], and I haven’t looked back too much, ”smiles the artist, who has always found life beautiful. But the question of medical history or shows about reunion regularly rekindle his curiosity.
“I see that we have a lot of DNA in common”
“I did the DNA test at Christmas 2019,” she says. The sale of these kits is prohibited in France, where 100,000 to 200,000 people would nevertheless use it via online foreign companies, according to Inserm. The MyHeritage genealogy platform sends her two “kinds of cotton swabs” with which she scrapes the inside of her cheek before sending them back sealed in a box. In a few weeks, she has access to the ethnic origins detected: 50% from Africa (in connection with Martinique) and a whole list of people who have done the same test in the world and share a part of her DNA (usually tiny) . “We’re kind of cousins,” she laughs.
At the end of September 2020, she is preparing her first solo on stage at the Choucrouterie. The day before the show, she receives a message via the platform, from a certain Jacques Ettel. She first thinks of a brother. From La Motte-Servolex, in Savoie, this retiree keen on genealogy wrote to him: “I see that we have a lot of DNA in common…” “You have to click on the button, remembers Morgan with emotion. And there he scored: 49.9% with this person. Estimated: father. “
“It is the earth which opens under my feet”
“At one in the morning, the earth opens up beneath my feet. I laughed, I cried. I woke up my husband who didn’t understand because I couldn’t speak anymore, it was a tsunami of emotion. I called my mother, I was overwhelmed. “The next day, on the way to the stage, the phone rings:” Hello, it’s Jacques Ettel. “It was so improbable, I searched for it for years!” I think I laughed for two minutes, he must have taken me for crazy. “His first question to him was:” who is your mother? »And Morgan’s:« Are you a jazz pianist? Well, not at all, it was just a hobby.
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At the end of the weekend, they meet halfway, in Dôle. “Despite the virus, we couldn’t help but hug each other. It was pouring rain, we spent the afternoon walking, our feet were wet, we didn’t even realize it, ”Morgan recounts. “It’s really magic, I’m lucky! He is very jovial, he talks to everyone. He’s already calling me sweetie. “
“I’m all marshy, all chirpy, I have trouble resurfacing”, confides for his part the father, 80 years since the end of November, a former salesman who has “55 cars under his foot”, and partly origins Alsatian. It was to find ancestors and further enrich the 40,000 references in his family tree that he took this test. “I did not expect at all to be told: Estimate: girl. I was stunned. “
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Beautiful as the day
Yes, he remembers this young woman “as beautiful as day”, whom he had seduced in Paris when she was 18 and he was 33. “She had hidden her age from me, but I had a lack. of total responsibility, I was as selfish as possible, ”laments the one who has since had several households. Her boy and daughter, twins, are eager to meet their new sister. “Morgan is a ray of sunshine,” rejoices the father. She is completely released, it’s fabulous! And then, her voice, when she sings! I passed it on last night. We didn’t see each other much, but as soon as possible, it won’t drag on! “, Promises the one waiting for one thing: to be able to be vaccinated.
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