My crossing
In 1972, in Tours, the three lineages crossed in a single child. From a clearing in Touraine to the square de Clignancourt, from the small family business to the server rooms of large corporations, this is Alexander Swann’s life up to 2020, and what each branch left in it.
The thread
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16 May 1972
Alexander Remzi George Swann is born in Tours
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1972
The fibroid operation during pregnancy, the one-in-a-hundred prognosis, survival
Family accountChapter I : Born at the crossing
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1972–1974
Early childhood in a clearing of a private forest in Touraine, among the animals
Family accountChapter I : Born at the crossing
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Around 1973
Hornets attack the forest house, driven back by the fire in the hearth
Family accountChapter I : Born at the crossing
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1973–1976
Staying at the grandfather’s château in Touraine, in the middle of the park
Family accountChapter I : Born at the crossing
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Around 1974
Choking in the grass, and the rescue by the American grandmother
Family accountChapter I : Born at the crossing
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1980s–1990s
A child of television and pop culture, with one term of lycée as schooling
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18 November 1981
A brother is stillborn in Montreuil
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1984
Emmanuel, the younger brother, is born
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1984
Sudden death of his father, Gordon Swann, at thirty-six
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After 1984, about ten years
Working alongside his mother in the family business, as a Swiss army knife
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Around 1989
First steps in computing at seventeen, by watching and tinkering
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1991
Samantha, his first child, is born
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1993
Terry, his second child, is born
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Late 1990s
Poker through all its eras, and second place in a major tournament of three hundred players
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2000s–2010s
Twenty years with large corporations: design, development, integration, DMZ servers
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2015–2022
Seven years in cybersecurity, two of them as CISO
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31 August 2019
Death of his mother, Emine Ülker Aygün, in Gagny
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2019–2020
His mother’s parentage is corrected in Bobigny
Chapters
- I 1972–1976 Born at the crossing What crosses from one world to another : breath On 16 May 1972, in Tours, the English, American and Turkish lineages met in a single child. His first years live on in a few scenes the family told and retold.
- II 1976–1984 The square and the screen What crosses from one world to another : the image Paris, 18th arrondissement. A square, a corner building, a television left on, a language school growing. Then two losses, and a birth.
- III 1984–2000 Figure it out, it has to work What crosses from one world to another : resourcefulness After Gordon’s death, the family held together through work. Alexander learned everything in his mother’s small company, and began to watch the machines.
- IV 2000–2022 Thirty years among machines What crosses from one world to another : the flow From large corporations to IT security: twenty years designing, integrating and protecting systems that must never stop.
- V 2019–2020 Mme Swann What crosses from one world to another : the name Ülker held the company together, then the family. When she died, her name still had to be set right.