- b. 1895-06-23 QC
- d. 1987-07-23 Peace River, AB buried Falher, AB
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In 1918, Joseph Arcand was 23 years old when he was the victim of an accident on Léonard Paquette's farm. This happened during the harvest season while the farmers were getting ready to change from one field to another, when someone dropped a large horse's strap or belt which hooked onto Joseph's right arm twisting it until it dislocated. The arm was hanging from the shoulder only by a bit of skin and flesh. Someone ran to hold up the arm, but no one knew what to do..To begin with, Joseph was brought to Mrs. Gravel who was well-known to help others, but when she realized that the arm was holding only by some skin and the bone was dislocated, she knew she couldn't to anything, so the told the men to get Joseph to a doctor. The men found a railway speeder ready to go. Mrs. Gravel took a large white sheet and wrapped the arm against Joseph's body. She also covered Joseph with a blanket while the men gave him a good shot of brandy.
Four men then transported Joseph in a blanket to the railroad close by the Gravel Hotel..Joseph was put on a speeder and two men started to pump. The speeder started slowly then soon picked up speed.
When the first two men were tired, the other two replaced them, They got to High Prairie, 65 kilometers away, but Dr. Spaulding was not there so they then contacted Dr. Gauthier who promised to meet them in Donnelly in a day or two; so they spent the night in High Prairie then returned to Donnelly.
Once back in Donnelly, everyone had gone to Mrs. Gravel's where everyone seemed to have gathered, and she took care of them all!. The next day, Dr. Gauthier arrived and asked Mrs. Gravel for a butcher knife. With Mrs. Gravel's help, Dr. Gauthier cut off the skin which held the arm to the shoulder. On the following day, Pierre Arcand took the train with his son, Joseph to go to the General Hospital in Edmonton. The General Hospital was run by the Grey Nuns, and was the first hospital in Alberta.
The accident happed on a Monday everning and they didn't reach the hospital until the Friday morning. By now Joseph was close to death. however with the good services and care of the doctors and nun-nurses they were ablel to help Joseph rehabilitate rather well from the accident.
During Joseph hospitalization, the people of the region were aware of his situation, Whenever someone went to the city, he/she always made a special trip to visit Joseph. The lawyer, L.A. Giroux (future MLA for the Grouard constituency which included Donnelly, Falher, etc) lived in Edmonton and often went to see Joseph. Finally when Spring arrived, Joseph was able to go back to the farm. Since there was no medical insurance during these years, the lawyer Giroux made it his business to collect the people of the Donnelly-Falher area and thus was able to pay the six-month bill. The Grey Nuns, who owned the hospital during these years charged $1.00 a day for a patient's food, medicine, laundry, daily bath, daily bed change and the care of a nurse twenty-four hours a day. This was areal bargain, however, when one has no money what-so-ever....
Gradually Joseph returned to his farm work, with one arm rather than two; this was not a useful situation, but his progress was interesting. He had always been close to his mother and he remained single (maybe by choice?) all the while he was in charge of the farm. Even though one didn't exclain daily that life was beautiful, one could still be happy!.
It wasn't until he was 65 that the farm was sold and the four of them, his mother, Cécile and Joachim and himself moved to town. Life change a bit for now he could go to the local café with some friends. Furthermore he started to curl. he could even sweep the ice even though he had only one arm. Over the years he became a very good curler belonging to the Turcotte team which often participated in local bonspiels.
Joseph died at the age of 92 in the auxiliary hospital in Peace River where he had spent his last years.
For the family genealogy - "Pierre Arcand and Hélène Auger"
For pictures see the picture section under the same title
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in 1927. It hardly shows he has only one arm
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