It seems it always starts with a grandmother.

I also had a wonderful acadian grandmother who lived to the ripe old age of 104. She spent a good bit of that life being a wife and mother working on a farm in St. Gilbert in the Evangeline region of the island but also on top of all that she was a teacher in the small french schools of the day.

I wish I had more details on that part of her life but if memory serves me correctly she taught in two different stages, before her kids came along and after they were old enough to look after themselves. At her funeral, I recall meeting some of her old students and thinking gee some of these people have to be in their late seventies if not older.

She had an insatiable thirst for knowledge through reading in French and English. Her glasses at age 100 were as thick as coke bottles and made her eyes look huge. She was a grand old lady who helped prepare the alter at the Somerset Manor chapel every Sunday morning, until she got too old to do it, well into her late nineties.

I was also proud to discover in recent years that she had been a recipient of the Acadian Order of Merit given out by the Societe de St. Thomas D’Aquin for a commitment to Acadian heritage, education, etc…

For all these things and more she has been an inspiration to me and one of the reasons I will continue to advocate for Francophone rights on the Island.