Michelle S - Vancouver

I just got a card from my daughter today that said “However hard you try, you end up like your mother”. I now know at 61, that being more like my mom would actually not be such a bad thing. Yvette Lebel-Bourbeau passed away at 88 some 10 years ago now. Yvette was one of the most humble, gracious, generous people I have known.

She longed to be more educated, being the “chosen one” to stay home after grade 3 to cook and clean at 9 years of age for the other 11 members in the family. She taught her own 6 children the art of hard work and that nobody hands you anything on a platter….you work for what you want in life (yes, we are all workaholics). However, no amount of formal education could improve the values & behaviors that were just part of her persona. This was a woman who knew the difference between right and wrong and steadfastly stuck to her principles. She taught me to have a disdain for smoking (I concur), that you should only marry French-Catholic people (I didn’t listen), that spring cleaning is good for the soul (just getting that message now), that making grand-peres for dessert when there is nothing else around will thrill your visitors (amen), to keep the door open for anyone who wants to visit and that you stop to talk to them (no i-pods to interfere back then) and above all else, family is the most important part of your life (getting this message late in life I am afraid but none-the-less, getting it!). Merci maman for all the gifts you gave me and bonne fetes des meres!

From the baby of the family, Michelle