Laura Bourque Arsenault

Laura Bourque-Arsenault, 95,wife of the late Albénie Arsenault, of Moncton, passed away Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at the Dr-Georges-L.-Dumont Hospital.

Born February 10, 1914 in Notre-Dame, she was the daughter of the late Adélard and Suzanne (Landry) Bourque. She was known as «The mother of the Acadian poets». Laura loved to read, and for over 30 years, she wrote a diary of her daily life. She wrote two poetry books, «Du pain sur la planche» and «La vie à travers ma poésie» She also wrote her auto-biography «Brins de vie, Brins de poésie». She also loved the theatre, acadian music and knitting.

She will be sadly missed by her seven children: Maria Abel (late Gordon) of Salmon Arm, BC, Diane Arsenault ofDieppe, Annette Boudreau (Gerry) and Guy Arsenault both of Moncton, Robert Arsenault (Hélène) of Shediac, Suzanne Gison (Ed) of Brampton, ON, Monique Paquet (Claude) of Memramcook; two sisters: Rita Estabrooks of Moncton, Thérèse Roy (Alban) of Notre-Dame; and a brother, Aurèle (late Irène) of Dieppe; 15 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren, many nieces and nephews.

Besides her husband, she is also predeceased by a grand-daughter, Danielle Boudreau; two brothers, Edgar and Raymond; and two sisters, Stella and Lina.

Visitation will be at Frenette's Funeral Home, 88 Church Street, Moncton (858-1900). The funeral mass will be held at N.-D.-de-Grâce R.C. Church, Moncton, on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 11 am. Interment will be in Our Lady of Calvary Cemetery, Dieppe.

Visiting hours Friday, from 2-4 & 7-9 pm; Saturday, from 10 am until departure (10:45).

At the request of the family, donations to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation would be appreciated in memory of her grand-daughter Danielle.

www.frenettefuneralhome.com

I am still here

I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that we are still alive and here. About 2 weeks ago I received a call from my mom telling me my grandmother was ill with the flue, after a few days the flue turned in a blocked intestines and a hospital stay with diagnosis that my grandmother had a stronger chance of dying then surviving. We immediately packed our bags and headed to Moncton via car to be with her. A day into our trip the diagnosis changed to a hernia pressing on her intestines causing a blockage and stopping her from being able to eat, this is operatable and after long deliberation she decided to go for the operation. (At her age there is only a 50% chance she would wake up from the anestestic let alone recover) it has now been a week and half we are in Moncton and she is looking like she is on the road to a great recovery. ( We are staying hopefull ) We were suppose to leave this morning however Moncton has been blanketed with an Easter snow storm, I guess we were ment to have one more visit with my grandmother before leaving.

Laura Bourque Arsenault AKA memere

At the age of 94 my grandmother has recently published another book "La Vie a travers ma poesie". I felt compelled to blog about this because first of all I am extremely proud of her but furthermore she is probably the person I look up to the most on this planet. She is an amazing women that has always lived by her own rules; she was a feminist before one knew what the word meant. She has always shown unconditional love to her family and respect to everyone that cross her path. These days if you goggle my memere's name some of the items you will find are: An interview with Radio-Canada; An article in l'etoile; A poem written for her; to name a few.

Here is a snippet from her book:

"Une mere est une personne
Qui est a l'ecoute
Donne des petites attentions
Jour apres jour.
Aime sans retour et
S'efface
Pour laisser ses enfants vivre leur propre vie."
Laura Bourque Arsenault 11 mai 1994

These are words every mother should live by.

Christophe already has his copy of her book autographed by her that he will be able to read once he is older as a way to know her. Hopefully he will find it amusing seeing pictures of himself and his mother published in a book.

Je t'aime memere.