Interview For Franco American Women’s Experience
Paulette Ferland
WST 235.990 FALL 2007
October 29-2007

I chose my subject to interview for this French class because I have always admired Bonita P. Grindle and the woman she has become. She is a Franco American woman who had no special opportunities growing up but, through her life and its experiences, she has become an unsung hero in my eyes and all those around her. And…..this is her story.
“J'ai été censé naître un garcon”
{I was supposed to be born a boy}

A little girl was born in Old Town, Maine, at a hospital that looked like a home. It was called "The Home Private" and eight years later, by coincidence, I was also born in the same place, probably in the next room if the truth be known. Years later, "The Home Private" was torn down to make room for new endeavors. This little girl was supposed to be born a boy according to her three older sisters. Five years between each sister, as if by plan of her parents, but by happenstance, she was born and her Mother and Father named her Bonita Anne Parent. Her older sister was named Jacqueline Therese, and the second sister was named another French name, Germaine Marie. The third daughter was Linda Jean, and finally came Bonita Anne. Bonita’s Mother tried to assimilate and go away from the French ways and this is demonstrated when you listen to the daughters’ names. The first two names being French and the next English and then Spanish for Bonita. Bonita wanted her name to be Angelique but it was never to be.

She was born to a Father that originally came from Drummond, Canada, and a mother that was born here in the States. Bonita’s father went by the name of Lawrence his entire life.

After he passed away, Bonita got his birth certificate and his real name was Lion (pronounced Leon) Laurent Parent. Since he was a non-reader, he only knew what others told him.

Her Mother’s name is Anita Germaine Durette Parent and is still alive today. She is 90 years young. After Bonita’s father passed away, Anita remarried and her new name became Arsenault. Bonita’s Mother, Anita, was the first in the family to be born in the United States. Anita was born in Old Town and the older children were born in Canada.

“L'Exode”
{The Exodus}

Sharing a little about her family’s exodus to the States, Bonita told this story. Her Grandfather was French and Native American and left Canada to make a new life here in the United States. He was a non-reader and got a job working at a hotel starting the fires, keeping the fireplaces cleaned out, and taking care of chamber pots. After he had worked for a while, he sent for his wife, Bonita’s Grandmother, Emelia Gagnon, to join him. She came on the train with her four children in tow. On the train, one of her children passed away in her arms. When she arrived in the States, authorities did not allow her to disembark because she had a dead child and no one knew the cause of death. Authorities insisted she board a different train back to her homeland and bury her child there. The family never knew the cause of death nor what the length of time was before she and her beloved husband were reunited. Bonita’s father was the youngest of seventeen children.

Bonita was born in Old Town and spent her childhood growing up there. I was surprised to find out she did not reside on French Island, where most of the Franco’s ended up. She grew up on Academy Hill in Old Town. She loved living in that area.

Growing up she was called “The Brown Bomber,” and the reason her friends and family called her that was because she was always on the go, never stopping. Instead of going around things, she would go through things.

Back then, her hair was a beautiful brown color, her eyes were a twinkling brown shade and her skin, especially in the summer, had a beautiful brownish tint, and probably passed down from her French genes.

Beginning with Kindergarten, Bonita attended St. Joseph Catholic School and was there for the nine full years. She never regretted a day spent there. It was basically a great experience for her. Bonita shared that many of the nuns that taught there were her biological cousins. She stayed at the Sisters of Mercy convent when her Mother required a babysitter. At the time, I remember that people had impressions that nuns were these beings who wore long black gowns and floated two to three inches off the ground. Because many of the sisters stayed in her home, she realized that they were just normal human beings.

Bonita was rare with her feelings towards the sisters, as she experienced no fear of them as others did because she had seen them at their worse, swearing, pulling hair, and acting out like normal folks in her home. I realized that these nuns were only regular people so that is why I acted out in school and got into trouble. I had no fear of them!

“Étaient les vraies personnes de nonnes?”
{Were nuns’ real people?}

Bonita even remembered some of the nun’s names. She told me her favorite sister was Sister Cabrinie
. She seemed very young to Bonita. Mother Veronica was remembered as being the most physically beautiful woman Bonita had ever seen.
Back than the nuns were called, “Mother.” In later years, when I would take my adventure through Parochial School, nuns were called, “Sisters.”

Bonita recalled when the time came to pass out report cards; children were called up front, one by one, in order of rank by the nuns, highest ranking coming up first. There would be a star posted in the front of the room and on each point of the star (5 points), each high-ranking photo would be placed for recognition. This would stay at the front of the room until the next report card was given out. This was embarrassing to the children who did not perform so well. The nuns did this thinking this course of action would show the other children to try harder during the next period.

“Vous avez fait votre acte de la Pénitence”
{Did you make your Act of Contrition?}

This story is being told so that the reader can hear some of the punishments Bonita endured so that you can understand how important it was for her to make something of herself later in life. Bonita shared one punishment for herself personally. When it was time to make your “Your Act of Contrition,” which says, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned, it has been three months since my last confession.” Instead of stating the standard Contrition, Bonita adlibbed and said, “Hey-dig me Daddio for I have goofed!”

The nuns did not take a liking to her version and locked her in the storage room, on numerous occasions for hours at a time. When you think of that practice today, if there had ever been a fire and the building cleared, no one would have ever realized there was a little child locked in that closet.

Bonita vividly shared with me a few other punishments as well that happened to some of her classmates there. One boy had acted out so the nuns brought in a playpen, placed him in there, and taped his mouth shut with masking tape and left him in there for the entire day.

“Voyez le petit singe que nous avons attrapé”
{See the little monkey we caught}

Another story, another boy was being punished. Bonita shared that she was raised in an all-girl family and was quite sheltered by her Mother. This nun pulled down the boy’s pants and spanked him in full view of the entire class. Bonita had never seen a boy’s anatomy, and she was petrified that there was something wrong with this young man and ran home to tell her Mother. She was shocked! She found out that day that boys were certainly different than girls!

Bonita’s girlfriend had brought a jump rope to school and was playing with it in the classroom. The nun’s took it away from her, tied her securely with it, and placed her on the very highest point of that piano. Then they invited the upper grades to file in and the nuns would say, “See the little monkey we caught.”

One last story Bonita shared with me was that she had gone to a dance in the seventh grade. One of the nuns came up to her the next day and said, “We heard you were at a dance last night and you were wearing a sleeveless dress. Now, when your babies are born without arms, we will know the reason.”

“Donnez-moi une des pièces de monnaie de recompense”
{Give me one of the jètons (pronounced jè-tons)}

The nuns had a strange reward system. At the beginning of the year, each child who attended school would be given a number of jètons. This seemed to be made of a sturdy square pressed cardboard with a red star stamped on it. During school, if you misbehaved, talked in class, or talked back to the nuns, the Sister would say, “Donnez-moi une jèton.” You had to stop what you were doing at the time and give the nun a reward that you had earned earlier.


“Ce qui est dans la salle d'entreposage”
{What is in the storage room?}

The funny thing was the storage room was where they kept the jètons and while in there, Bonita would load up her pockets with scores of those jètons. Having complete secret access to these rewards, Bonita was blessed with an abundance of rewards. When you had collected enough of these, you could purchase items with the jètons, and Bonita had more than anyone else in her class. The nuns never caught on to why she had so many.

She shared with me that with the jètons she had “acquired” out of the storage room, she purchased a beautiful gold chain and cross for her sister’s wedding, and her Mother was the lucky recipient of a plastic crucifix with Christ painted in gold on the crucifix.

As far as language was concerned certain subjects were taught in French and some in English. Religious education and language were taught in French where science and history were taught in English.

“Fin de la semaine”
{The end of the week}

Growing up, my parents did not wish for me to speak the French I was learning in school in our home because they felt that was a different French then what they were used to. The Parisian French we were learning in school would say “Le Weekend.” But in the French my parents were used to would say, “Fin de la semaine.” My parents were fluent in French but my Father would stick “H’s” in where they didn’t go such as Heggs for breakfast and where is the Holeo (margarine).




“Notre foi était importante”
{Our faith was important}

Growing up, Bonita felt she lived a traditional lifestyle. She enjoyed eating some of the French foods such as green beans and salt pork, and creton. She reported that her family loved attending Catholic Mass bright and early. The family was seated by 6 AM to get the French version. After school, Bonita and the children she hung around with would hide in the bushes in front of their family home and make shrines. "We knew the Virgin Mary would show herself to us one day." We truly believed our faith and enjoyed every minute of it. It was important to all of us as a family. If you went to mass and wanted to receive communion, you could not have eaten for twelve hours prior to mass so we went to church starved and following mass, we could eat our breakfast. Our family all knelt in prayer nightly in the home for about half an hour.

One thing she loved was, because many of the nuns were her relatives, she would be able to help decorate for Christmas, the altar and such. She remembers looking in the “Tabernacle” to see if that was where God lived. She peeked in and nothing….but then again, on Sunday, it was there! What a miracle! She always loved the Pomp and Circumstance of the Catholic faith. "I was blessed that I was born French and Catholic. I feel privileged."

Today, Bonita does not practice any faith regularly. Bonita told me that when she was a young married woman with two small children, her Father came down with a terrible case of Parkinson’s disease. At the time, she had not been going regularly to their church. He was sure that if she would return to church, God would grant him a healing. She once attended a Baptist church for a season and she really enjoyed that. Presently, Bonita doesn’t attend church but daily reads her Bible, enjoy her devotions, and prays regularly.


“Quel genre de catholique sont vous”
{What kind of Catholic are you?}

I was never comfortable growing up as a daughter of a Canadian Father. My Father owned his own business in the woods and he had to file all of these immigration documents. We would be watching the television and an announcer would say, “If you are an alien, you are required to file this form by law." I would check to see if there were any growths protruding from my Father’s head. I didn’t understand why they were referring to my Dad as an alien. Later in life, I found out that my Father was from Canada. When we made journeys back to Canada, my Father would become nervous as we got closer to the border. There was terrible apprehension because he was a non-reader and he thought they would always give him a difficult time trying to cross. I adopted that feeling and still, to this day, become nervous, when I get close to the border.

Things were so divided back then. Just in Old Town, there was a French Catholic Church, an Irish English Catholic Church, a Native American Catholic Church, and The Jewish Synagogue. After church, we were just plain kids! Later in life, when I went to class reunions, other children would say, “Oh~you were one of those lucky people that went to St. Joseph’s School. We ALWAYS envied you. You all came as a group and stayed together. You had something the rest of us never did.”

“J'ai voulu travailler dur”
{I wanted to work hard}

Growing up, Bonita was never encouraged to work toward a higher education but she ALWAYS had a desire to. She had a great interest to become a veterinarian. Back then, women were encouraged to get married and have children, or work as a Secretary in an office but that was it. Even with the guidance counselors, no encouragement was given to a student.
Yes, Bonita did get married, did have babies, did became a Secretary, but still had that deep down desire to attend college and further her education.

She started off at Husson College in Bangor in the medical field. She then transferred to the University of Maine and worked toward a BS in Micro Biology and received her degree in 1990. For that recognition of being outstanding student in the field at the time, University officials placed a plaque in Hitchner Hall at the Orono campus. One day she went to look at it, and noticed her name was spelled incorrectly. The plaque read “Bonnie Grindle.” She said to herself, “Who is that?” She told me that she had actually taught for a few years here on this campus in Microbiology. At the same time, she was going to school for her Masters in Adult Education and in particular, “How do adults learn?” She received her Master’s Degree also from this same college. How remarkable!

“Mon Héros Méconnu”
{My Unsung Hero}

Bonita Grindle is my “Unsung Hero.” She has served as Interim Director for Equal Opportunity for the University of Maine and is presently serving as Associate Director. She shared with me that her greatest hero was Martin Luther King because he believed in the same rights for all people, no matter the color of their skin. After conducting my interview, I can tell Bonita has that same heart.

I asked Bonita what her stations in life have been. She had many. Bonita shared with me being a Mother was the most noble thing she has ever experienced in her life thus far. Being a wife has also been incredible. Education was another important chapter.

After enjoying this interview with Bonita, I found out the following:

Bonita is from the same culture I am, French. That is something we are both tremendously proud of.
Bonita is one of those strong, well-educated, dependable, tuff French women we have been learning about in class. Bonita is proud of her heritage today.
Bonita, through endurance and difficult times, has surmounted all those obstacles in life, to become an inspiration to all of us women out there who are still climbing that ladder to success. She is at the top, holding that same ladder, to make our journeys a little easier. She has seen, good, bad, and injustice, but she shared with me that together, those obstacles are part of who she is today.

Bonita shared with me that “Family” has inspired her throughout her life and that is the one thing that she feels we carried forward from being a Franco. The Family Unit that was always important in her younger day has been of recent, falling apart. Bonita feels that family has made our country strong and stable. She stated that we need to work harder at getting that tradition back. I am truly inspired with the woman Bonita has become.
So, as you can see, Bonita didn’t turn out too bad for a young lady that spent most of her nine years locked in a closet stealing jètons in that Parochial School years earlier. Yes, Bonita Grindle, Associate Director for Equal Opportunity here at the University of Maine is my “Unsung Hero!”