From generation to generation.
A translation by Judith Turcotte.
Saint-Lambert was and remains my hometown. I was born in Saint-Lambert and grew up on Oak Avenue south of Logan. My parents did not choose to live in this suburb, but my grandfather, Charles-Henri and my grandmother Hélène, came to settle here, he from Laval Street in Montréal and she, from Valleyfield. She was part of the well-known Larocque family. They arrived in 1923 and built a house on Notre-Dame Avenue at the corner of Logan. One day, I happened to find a copy of the contractor’s invoice for the house in the astronomical price of $3000. Charles-Henri was active in the community; he was president of the school Board and was a member of the Santa Maria Council of the Knights of Columbus.
My grandparents had three children who, in turn, all raised their children in Saint-Lambert. My aunt Marie (André Vary) raised her family on Notre-Dame Avenue, my aunt Jeanne (Adrien Gauthier) raised her family on Curzon Avenue and my father Jean-Louis (Odette Comtois) built his house on Oak Avenue.
My parents met in Saint-Lambert. My mother is the daughter of a farmer from Pierreville. He was an agronomist and made sure that his children pursued their studies. The boys went to university, the two girls, my mother and her sister Mireille, to a secretarial school. That is how it was at the time. After her graduation, my mother moved to St. Lambert to live with her Marchand cousins who lived on Oak Avenue, a few houses from where I grew up. She quickly found employment as a secretary at the Nesbitt Thomson brokerage firm on St. James Street.
The Marchand cousins regularly organized parties at their home. One day, my father, Jean-Louis, was walking in front of their house when he saw this young woman mowing the lawn. He then made sure to be invited to one of those evenings and it was love at first sight.
I, in turn, raised my family on Dulwich, but that’s another story.