By Antoinette Menzietti

 This paper is presented as a final project for the University of Maine's course in Franco-American Women's Experiences, Fall 1999. I have used the writings of Amy Morin's submitted to the class in Lesson 12 as a resource into the lives of her family.

 After requesting assistance in finding a Franco-American women for this final project, I accepted the invitation from Amy Morin (a guest speaker for our class) to meet Agatha Bouchard, Amy's mom, to interview her, as well as Amy, as  Franco-American Women Artists, of the 20th century. I will refer to  Amy's writings throughout the work to illustrate certain points, or to make reference to historical Bouchard family events. 
 Amy Morin's work caught my eye in this course. Her writing reached me in a way I could understand, in a way that intrigued me into reading, and knowing more. The stories that pertain to this work are all of her family. Stories of her memere, her mother, and herself were told with great love, warmth, and respect. This kind of writing is refreshing in this complicated contemporary world. The traditions that pass through generations are captured, in her descriptions of places, and people. Her writing, along with her teaching, and sharing skills, are just some of the arts that she preserves inside of herself, as you will soon see as  her family heritage and tradition unfold in this work. 
 To begin this project I first made arrangements to meet with Amy, at the University of Maine, at her office, on University Avenue.  When I got there, the impression that was clearest in my mind, when I walked in the office, was that Amy's office space was really  nice, like a home. Her office was warm and light. There was an immediate response within myself to be at ease. This is not normally my natural first response in a University office. It was impressive too. I don't know exactly what it was, but there's no denying it was there. I was cheerfully greeted by a smiling, confident,  women with whom I felt, I was at the least, welcome, in her space. It was Amy. We made quick arrangements and I followed her, by car, to Agatha's home in Old Town, where I planned to interview them both.
 When we arrived at Agatha's, I had the same initial reaction  to my surroundings. Her house was warm and beautiful. Once again I could not remember the intimate details of the house, just the feeling I got when I entered it. There were warm soft colorful afghans on every chair, two on some. There were wonderful paintings on the walls. Paintings of landscapes, one with people. I found out later that these were done by Agatha's husband, Amy's father. There was a feeling of welcome in the atmosphere of the house, and the greeting I was met with as we arrived. I felt at ease. Maybe I felt as if I had known them from Amy's writings, but I think it was something in the air. The living room where Agatha sat was sunny and cheerful, it seemed to be filled with the warmth of love. Agatha, Amy, and I were initially alone, joined later by Amy's dad, but the house seemed radiant, full, lingering warm spirits. I had brought along with me a list of questions that I thought were important to ask. I wanted to know about her life as a teacher. There were questions about how she learned her skills, what her art meant to her ?, what influenced her styles ?, did her work mark eras of her life ?, or could you see time passing in the changes of her patterns or stitching? Knowing ahead of time that she was an artist in textiles, there was the question of who had her work? Where was it displayed? How do you make your color choices? Are your patterns original? What aspect of your work is Agatha, what aspect is heritage and tradition?  But, I never got a chance to ask. Agatha answered my questions intuitively.
 After our introductions she simply began telling me the story of her beautiful afghans. She showed me, and told me of a few other kinds of stichery she had mastered. She had even worked making children's clothes at one time. But what really caught my attention and what she   really talked about were the beautiful afghans. Unlike my earlier interview with Madeline Bouchard on Mount Desert Island, Agatha immediately began to speak at length about the amazing legacy of love she has created, with the creation and giving, of her warm wonderful afghans. She began by telling me how the whole legacy had begun for her.

 Agatha began the story by talking about her own mother. She mentioned that she had grown up on a farm and that knitting, crocheting, and various other forms of  stitching was a constructive and pleasurable way to spend a long cold winter, in Lille. 
 Amy's writings tell a story of a small girl gifted in working with her hands. She began to learn to embroider when she was four. Her love for stitching grew as she learned the art of  knitting, crocheting, tatting, sewing, weaving, doing hardanger, and hooked rugs.
  Agatha in turn taught her daughter Amy to sew, embroider, knit, and crochet. Agatha's mom, Amy's memere had started the tradition long before she taught Agatha. She had made woolen comforters from home carded wool, dyed the wool and stitched the comforters herself. She had created a legendary rug which was sorely missed by her family after its sale. She created another in its place but none like it was ever made by her again. Amy's memere had made her own soaps from lye and fats, put up her own jams jellies, and vegetables for herself and her family each year for the winter food supply. Amy's writing states that Agatha's mom made 48 loaves of bread per week keep her family fed. She traded butter, cream, eggs, and milk, from the farm, for meat for her family. She bought two five pound blocks of maple sugar each year, and created syrup and sweets to keep her family, and  ployes sweet. Agatha's mother was an artist of food as well as stitchery. Agatha who seems to have inherited her mothers artistic traits, as well as her ability to organize, lend a hand where needed, cook well, and keep her house beautiful and clean, turned around and handed these trait, and skills on to Amy, her daughter who reflects all of their collective respect and heritage in her continual artistic expressions. 
 When Agatha was twelve she was taught the art of hardanger by a nun who was a friend. This is in keeping with the franco-american women's traditional cultural experience. Agatha showed me an exquisite example of  her own work . The hardanger was breathtaking. It was an cross of cloth surrounded by complicated intricate lace work. It looked as if it were extremely time consuming and stressful to create. Every stitch was perfectly placed. Not stressful ,according to Agatha, who said  "As long as you don't drop a stitch you are O.K. If you drop one of these stitches you are actually dropping 8 stitches. If you do this, the whole thing will just unravel." Her piece was perfect. The stitches were so very small. Agatha told me that the women/girls created their own patterns with a system which uses pins and squares from books. This pattern making is an art form which must be learned from someone who has the experience. A dying art. The women/girls had no patterns other then the ones that they created for themselves. So, they created patterns, and produced great works of stitchery art. As she talked about her other textile works the original pattern seemed to be the standard for Agatha. Even if there was a pattern of stitching available in knitting a piece, she showed me how she changed the pattern to make it her own. She also spoke about patterns she created in some of her afghan strips that had to be repeated completed seventy-two times to complete the length of afghan she was aiming for. I took a lot of pictures of the different patterns she had created in finished works around their house. I took pictures of the stitching, the hardanger, and the large afghans and laps throws. The colors were amazing. The patterns and textures of the patterns were fascinating. The feel of the afghans was the most amazing though. The feel was something that would not have been captured accurately by a photograph. I wanted pictures just the same. I did not get them developed in time for this final project so I'll have to illustrate them with words as best as I can. Soft and thick,  warm, and all encompassing. The comfort and the beauty and the love in each stitch makes them amazing enough, but the beauty makes you feel as if your holding something precious, valuable, and priceless. As intrigued as I am by Agatha's work at this point I have no idea what to expect next and I stand surprised as  the best part of the story Agatha has  saved for last.
  Agatha tells me she never sold, but one, of her afghans in the many years she has been creating these masterpieces. The only way you could have an afghan made by Agatha was to bring her the yarn and she would create the piece. Her family, friends, or potential afghan receivers   used to bring her loads of yarn and Agatha would get great pleasure out of creating the afghans, lap throws, and couch throws, or bedspreads throughout her whole life, and giving them to the people who brought the yarn, or were just lucky enough to receiver or of these works as a gift. Everyone in the family has at least one of Agatha's many crochet, or knitted creations. Agatha talked about how much she loved the work itself of creating the piece, from the pattern, to the colors, to the stitching. It has given her pleasure always, and then always been a pleasure to all who have ever received one of these works of art. Then there is the pleasure she gets from the joy of giving and seeing the great appreciation of the work on the face of the recipient.
  Amy brought out all the work she could find at the house for me to look at and as I did Agatha asked me if there was anything that I had wanted to know, or any questions I wanted to ask her? All the questions I had it seemed had been pretty much answered in her explanation and sharing of her work. The one question I still had in my mind was, What Influenced the most change in your work throughout your life time. Agatha took a minute and then said, " The good Lord is taking away my eyes now. Just this last few weeks I have felt that there was a film forming over my sight which will not allow me to see my work clearly. She has recently given up all her other forms of stitching,  except knitting. Her eyes are just recently not good enough to see her patterns clearly, in any of the work that has not been created  by knitting.  The last piece she could see clearly was a large bedspread she had just completed. It had been made from a pure bright white yarn. She was thinking that the bright white would help her see the work more clearly. After sitting in the bright light of the living room window where she works day after day she felt the strain of the brightness must have finally taken its toll. Her eyes began to cloud over. She still insists on continuing with her work. She says she has slowed down considerably, and has had to unravel many rows of stitching trying to find that dropped stitch. She has been very sad and reduced to frustrating tears as her love of stitching becomes harder and harder for her to continue.
  Her son has asked her to make him a bedspread for him out of beautiful neutral grays which of course he purchased and brought to her just for this project. This is what she was working on as I interviewed her last week. She showed me the double cable of her own design, and also how the popcorn pattern was missing because of the complication of the stitches and the trouble with her eyes. She was determined to finish this for him no matter how many times she had to take it out and do it again. Her determination is the driving force behind this stage of her work.
  Agatha loves to read her readers digest in the big print but even that is getting hard for her now. "My sight is what has changed my work for me the most", said Agatha. Agatha also told me that long before she was losing her sight she had made lap throws for the veterans at the V.A. hospital so they would have something to keep them warm. With all she has done she seems to be set in her ways of helping other people by sharing the gifts that she has. This is just one of the many things Agatha has done to help others in need with her art, and other gifts of love. 
 Agatha will turn ninety years old on April twenty-third. Her sixtieth wedding anniversary will be on July twenty-ninth. Agatha was the baby in a family of 10 children. She herself grew up and had two children, Amy, and Denny. She also has five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.  In her life time she has accomplished many things. Amy tells heroic stories of her family members, at different times in their lives, a lot of them centering around Agatha, and her kindness,  generosity, and willing, selfless sense of duty, and responsibility, to her family, friends, and neighbors.  Amy tells of how took in homeless children, borders, fed hungry neighbors, taught school for thirteen years, warmed patients at the V.A. hospital, with her very own handstitched lap throws. Agatha cared for her sister Marianna, when Marianna was unable to take care of herself. Agatha was always available to help other households with cleaning and organizing in times of need, she even helped a neighbor unsuccessfully give birth, sharing her clothes, when the women was unclothed, and her husband helped by building the coffin for the deceased baby. She always treated neighbors as family, and upheld and passed on the Franco-American tradition of, as Amy puts it: feelings of responsibility for family and community deeply ingrained in the culture. She has raised a family and inspired two future generations of her family to great works of love, art, and expression.
 After my interview with Agatha was complete, I was filled with awe and amazement at how much impact one person, or one family, could have on the people in a community. I was amazed at the depth of the interview which I had just been a part of. Agatha had taken me to a place in the interview where I had not expected to  go. Keeping with the original plan for this interview was not to be. Agatha had taken the interview right directly to the heart of the Franco-American women's experience by showing me what the gift of the arts, and creativity really meant to her, and how she used those gifts, granted to her by God, to make other peoples lives better. To be a neighbor to everyone. 
 After the interview, I had so much information, and I had spent so much time talking with Agatha,  that I didn't feel there was time enough to get what I wanted for Amy's story. So, using the information I had gathered from the class from Amy's writings and what I absorbed from talking with Agatha I combined what I learned to create this final project.   I originally took this course out of basic interest in women's studies in general. I had virtually no experience, in my 37 years of life, to the Franco-Womens experience. I'm always interested in learning new things and sharing life experiences with other women with whom I share this earth. As classes began I was intrigued and amazed by the pioneering women, the nuns, the teachers, the nurses, the women building homes on shear faith. In the end though what has struck me the hardest, and stayed with me the clearest, is the heroic stance of the traditional franco-american women's experience taken by the everyday contemporary franco-american women. The heroic and consistently reoccurring tradition of love, honor, respect, work hard, be honest, take care of all God's family, family values found within this franco-american tradition. The pioneers were amazing, but these women who become pillars on which to build a community and family should be looked upon with the greatest of respect. Women like Mattie Pinette, Lanette Landry Petrie, Maggie in Calico Bush, the franco-american women authors we have been looking at throughout class, most especially dear to me,  Amy Morin, these are the women with something for us to learn. All of these women carry the Can I help you? What do you need? attitude. What I have been enlightened to, through these women, is a window to another time, and a window to the future. With ideals, and traditions being so misplaced and forgotten in these fast paced times, these women are the ones who are offering us knowledge to be applied to our future, learned from our past. They hold the key to our happiness and success. The love and respect of your family. A hand to your neighbor. A world where we are all one family within a community. 
 I believe I have learned so much from these rich family histories and traditions. I want to preserve some of these traditions, before foreign to me, deep inside myself. Why? So that I can carry on some of this good work for Agatha. I asked her, "What can I pass on for you? What  would you like to preserve for the future?"  I don't really remember getting a response. I'm going to chose to treat my neighbors as if they were family in times of need. I unknowingly have been making hats, sweaters, mittens, and socks for people, as gifts only, for years. I do this, because I like the way it feels to give to people, especially something you know will keep someone warm. I have also  been known, to only require someone to bring me the yarn, to create a sweater and even a pattern just for them. Everyone in my family has something that I made for them out of the love in my heart for them. I didn't know I shared tis behavior with Agatha till I heard her talk about it. Somehow I felt connected to her. I am going to continue this tradition now with a new sort of outlook.
  I also make homemade soap and have been doing it as a business for fourteen years. I was taught by my grandmother at a very young age. Before I left Agatha's house, after the interview, I made sure to leave Agatha, and Amy, both a couple bars of the homemade soap that I made, so that they might sense my desire to help carry on the love they've shared with me, in my first look into this wonderful world of Franco-American family traditions.