“I want nothing from love, in short, but love.” 
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, La Vagabonde

Sidonie Gabrielle Colette found love and happiness when she met Maurice Goudeket, a young businessman turned journalist.  They met in 1925, married on April 3, 1935 and remained together under Colette’s death in 1954.  This was her longest and happiest relationship.  During the last 20 years of her life, Colette suffered from a debilitating arthritis.  Even so, she continued to write about her impressions, recollections and fantasies.  Colette published Gigi in 1945 when she was 72 years old and lived to see her novel made into a film in 1948.  She would have been pleased to know that Vicente Minnelli directed a musical adaptation in 1958.

“Chance, my master and my friend, will, I feel sure, deign once again to send me the spirits of his unruly kingdom. All my trust is now in him- and in myself. But above all in him, for when I go under he always fishes me out, seizing and shaking me like a life-saving dog whose teeth tear my skin a little every time. So now, whenever I despair, I no longer expect my end, but some bit of luck, some commonplace little miracle which, like a glittering link, will mend again the necklace of my days. ” 
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette