By Joann Gagne 
 

FASWSTInterview
FAS329WST301 

YVETTE’S LIFE
 At the age of 82, she still provides for her family.  Her husband recently  has had bad luck with his health and she loving ministers to him.  Her  grandchildren, some grown into adults, always receive a warm smile, a pat on  the face, and a homemade cookie or a slice of her special pies.  Her  great-grandchildren deposit their treasures of field flowers and crayoned  pictures into her lap.  She grasps their little hands, patting them while she  utters words of praise, strong with a French accent, always followed by "How  pretty!"  Her children, now middle aged, some retiring, nest around her as  she devours their words concerning the topics of their daily lives.  She is  remarkable.  She is small framed, squishy in body, with a pleasant smiling  face in which is set the most crystal-clear blue eyes all surrounded by  fluffy white hair.  Her face and eyes reflect her warmth and love.  She is  caring while she administers to her family.  She is fanatical about  cleanliness and picky with her family’s food.  She is the center of her  family.  She makes each individual family member a part of her.  They feel  special in her presence and they each know that she loves Them best.  And she  has done this for the better part of a century.
 Yvette was born on Sand Hill in Augusta, Maine on February 18, 1917.  She  was baptized the next day by the priest from Saint Augustine’s Parish.  Her  parents Delina Roy and Joseph Parent had met, married, and settled on Sand  Hill among friends and family.  They had strong Catholic ties to their  church.  Joseph immigrated from New Brunswick and Delina from St. Bernard,  Quebec.  They came for the factory work.  Delina worked all her life in the  cotton mill and shoe shop until a forced retirement due to illness.  Joseph  worked for a time in cotton mill and then he got a better job working for the  city.  Joseph was 10 years older than Delina and he became the primary child  care for Yvette and her 6 sisters.  He was at home when Yvette returned from  school each day.  Her memories of her parents reflect that they had a  reversed role of family life, which was very unusual in the early 1920’s.   Joseph cooked dinner each night and after dark, a fatigued Delina would  arrive to join her family at the table.  Yvette says her mother never talked  too much, because she was always resting for the next day’s work.
 Yvette speaks of her childhood days spent from the age of seven at the  parochial school of Saint Augustine’s.  "We were taught by the Presentation  of Mary Order of Nuns.  We always wore black dresses with long sleeves and we  had on our long stockings.  Only your face and hands showed.  If you wore  short sleeves, the nuns would cover them with handkerchiefs and the other  children would laugh at you.  Oui, you always had long sleeves."  Yvette’s  day began at 7:00 a.m.  Every morning before school, Yvette attended mass in  her class formation, with her nun sitting sternly nearby.  The nuns "they  always were mad, with mad looks on their faces," they never seemed cheerful  to Yvette.  After mass, it was across the yard to school where classes were  taught in French in the morning, English in the afternoon.  "Religion was the  basic lesson, even though we learned our numbers, arithmetic, reading, and  ooh, you had to write good or the nuns would hit your hands." She never noticed any favoritism of boys over girls, only favoritism of those  children whose parents had money.  "Those children were talked and prodded  into becoming nuns and priests, so the church could have dowry for them."   Each lunch time she walked home for her midday meal and then walked back,  they had a two hour break between sessions.  "Oh yes, we were lucky we could  have a hot meal, the children from the country who came by horse and buggy  had to eat a cold lunch at the school."  She is not sure who made that meal  for her, since her mother always worked she only remembers the benefit of a  warm meal.
 School continued in the afternoon until about 4:00 p.m. at which time her  father was home to greet her.  Her school years stopped though in 7th grade  when she was 15 years of age.  "Oui, our whole class stayed back in 3rd  grade, because of this one girl who was not old enough to make her First  Communion, so the priest, he, kept us all behind.  She became one of the nuns  later in her life."  Yvette’s education ended with one single incident.  "An  older girl, from a click of three other girls, told the nun I had done  something, I never knew what that was.  But she lied and the nun, she  believed her.  Non, I could not say nothing about it.  Sister, she hit my  hands with a ruler and they swelled so bad, I suffered for days.  After that  it was no more school for me, non.  The priest, he came, to make me come  back, but I would not, and my mother said, no Yvette will stay with me."  She  had been degraded, dishonored, and undeservingly punished, she would not  return to school.  So she went to work at the shoe shop.
 Yvette talks about the her fear of fire.  "When we were young, the men  they talked about bad men coming to burn our houses at night.  I was so  afraid, I never slept for three or four nights.  I think that’s why now, I  check everything before I go to bed, so we don’t burn, but I never knew why  those men would burn us, anyways."  She remembers the stock market crash and  the suicides.  "I remember how some, they could not take losing their money.   But as far as us, our family, I don’t remember suffering too bad.  My  parents, they never talked to us about money, non.  We were not well-off, but  we did not go hungry either, like some did.  I know the wages, they were low  and there was some who suffered alot."  Yvette always felt protected, as a  child, unlike her cousins.  "My mataunts, they would scare their children  with stories of ghosts and monsters, but my mother she never believed in  scaring her children.  She said they would behave without such awful stories.   Non, we never did hear much in the way of legends, family history, or  nothing.  But my cousin, she said after she was married, she was still  afraid."
 Yvette married John Michaud of Ashland, on September 24, 1936.  John’s  father and mother, Hugh and Celina Michaud, had moved to Vassalboro with his  11 children and wife to farm.  John met Yvette at a dance hall, through his  sister, Alma, who worked with her at the shoe shop.  Dance halls on Saturday  night were the gathering places for young people.  "Oui, a whole group of us,  boys and girls would get together and walk to dance.  We would hear songs  like the 3:00 in the morning bells, that was pretty, and they had live bands  then."  Yvette doesn’t admit to dating "although, I danced with some nice  boys," she states.  John and Yvette honeymooned in Aroostook County during  potato harvesting.  There was a big party with the family, lots of dancing,  music, food, and drinking.  The newlyweds went to bed one hour before  everyone else and then Hugh slept in the same bed with them.  "They only had  so much room for everybody, so Papa slept with us.  The good news though we  didn’t have to pick potatoes, because we just got married, non."
 John and Yvette had six children, five living and one who died when he  was born.  "That was sad.  I fell down the stairs and he came before he was  ready, we could not stop him.  We baptized him and then he was buried.  I  always missed him, he was our first son."  Did Yvette ever consider a life  other than marriage and children?  "Non, I never did think what to do with my  life.  I wasn’t really expected to get married, either.  No, to say that I  thought about choices, I didn’t.  Your father he just sort of happened, you  know, I was only 19."
 The year they were married, Augusta experienced the Kennebec River Flood  of ’36 that devastated many towns in its path.  Yvette tells her memories of  the flood.  "John, your father, he was at work in the woods, and the river it  went over the small bridge downtown.  There was a policeman watching so no  one would cross that only bridge.  Your father he distracts the policeman and  wades across the bridge to come home to me for supper.  Lucky, he was not  arrested "  That’s how their marriage went, John always needed to be at  Yvette’s side, and she was always happy to be at his side, and neither  thought much about the issues of married life before they committed to each  other they just worked through them with a strong commitment for 63+ years.
 Yvette knows the family lineage, social structure, and history of most of  the people that she grew up with and lived near in her early years of  marriage.  She can give you a history of births, marriages, work history, and  deaths for many French families.  She remembers who married who, and how many  children, names, ages and all.  She recites it when asked remembering quite  well, even though she is in her eighties.  When someone she knows dies, "we  entertain ourselves with these things" she describes the whole family and  their lives.  Yvette can give you a detailed account of most saints and any  knowledge about Catholicism you may need to know.  Prayer and religion have  always been a part of her life that gave her comfort.  Since John and Yvette  are limited in body movement, they spend most of their days reminiscing about  the good old days.  "Oh yes, I pray for my family and I ask the saints to  help me, Oui."
 Yvette has and uses many talents she has learned over the years.  She  used to sew beautiful quilts and always embroidered her sheets and  pillowcases.  Her stitches were always tiny and precise.  She loved to work  with her hands.  She always mended and made clothing for her children.   Yvette worked for a few years after she married, but then John wanted her to  stay home.  "I had no one to take care of my babies, so I gave up working and  stayed with them.  John always worked hard to feed us, Oui.  I never missed  working, I was too busy in the house."  During World War II, Yvette had  another baby and John was spared from serving.  "He was too old, in his  thirties, and we had 3 babies, so instead he welded at Bath Iron Works.  I  was glad he stayed with me, because he probably would never have come back  from so far.  Lots of women, their husbands did not come back, that was too  bad.  I was careful with my rationing coupons, and John he built us a house,  so we could have a garden to eat from."
 Yvette always made jellies, picked whatever berry or fruit was in season,  froze, canned, and preserved everything from her garden.  She did this her  whole married life and still maintains a garden, processing the final  products and never misses picking fruit during any berry season.  "John he  would hunt or fish, yes he loved that when he didn’t have to work.  Then I  would have, me, meat to make mincemeat and stews.  Creton, I loved to have  that, me, for my breakfast.  When he could bring home fish, I loved that,  especially that trout, Oui.  We always had, us, fresh food.  We could not  afford to buy everything."  Yvette’s house always smells of something just  cooked, even though she gets "too tired these days to do much baking or  canning."
 Yvette brags "my children, they was always good.  They went to school and  they learned.  They never fought too much and they worked too.  Two of my  girls, they finished high school and I have two granddaughters that graduated  from college.  The others they married and stayed married for the most part.   I have 15 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.  Pretty soon, maybe I  will have some great-great grandchildren, if I live that long.  Then we will  be five generations alive."
 Yvette remembers good times and hard times.  She remembers "No matter  what, there was always music, laughter, dancing, drinking, lots of food to  eat, and plenty of family, sometimes too much of all them things, Oui.  Days  we didn’t work, we had fun.  Even if we was in the woods cutting firewood we  still made good times."  At 82, Yvette doesn’t move about much, and she  watches John’s health decrease with pain in her blue eyes and warm heart.   She is the last of her generation, aware and healthy, two sisters have  Alzheimer’s disease and are in nursing homes, four have died, and the  youngest was mentally-handicapped, always cared for by other family members.   Today, she sits beside her husband and they hold hands.  He teases her by  poking her and she says "stop that, will you, mind your hands" as she smiles  and pats his hand.  She is surrounded by family pictures and there is a warm  smell of apple pie in the air.  "Yes, it has been a good life, I don’t regret  too much, besides what else would I have done?"