POTVIN. CHARLES + AMELIE MONTPETIT (PART TWO) (96 ENG -- 95 fran )

   POTVIN, CHARLES + AMELIE MONTPETIT  SUITE) (96 ENG  --  95 fran)

   (part 2)

First communion at the Convent of the Sisters of the Assumption. The same year that we moved into the Franciscan franco-phone parish in the north of Edmonton, Bishop O’Leary changed the French Franciscan Sisters to the English Sisters of St. Joseph.  This is why when it became time to make my first communion, our parents sent Cecile and I to the convent of the Sisters of the Assumption in the centre of the city.  We weren’t even going to school yet. The teacher who was preparing us told me years later that she never forgot the reply I made in class one day when she was preparing us for our first confession. She was explaining that everyone of us each day made some small sin and “that even papa sinned.”  At this moment, in my wisdom of five years, I had stood up and in front of the whole class said that, “Our mother and all of our family never sinned.”

Ref.  Therese Potvin

We’ve read often that the children loved their mother and that they often mentioned how “good mama was,” and one woman who had a lot of faith would often mention that Maman would say “how good God was” so here I will add that…

Charles Potvin had two jobs to enable the family to survive.  He woke early in the morning and walked to his first job, that of being a postman and when this work was finished late in the afternoon, he left for his second job that of being a tailor.  After that, in the evening, if the weather was good, he walked back home; Amelie went outside with the baby carriage and called all the children to await their father.  For a man who had not known too much maternal love (his mother died when he was four) and he had no sisters…to have a warm welcoming wife and many children who also loved him, it must have been a wonderful feeling. Charles and Amelie never missed an opportunity to speak to their children, to laugh with them… we can also add that once the children went to bed, Charles and Amelie would sing together.  Charles was choir master at the Immaculate Conception parish, and the children said that “Amelie sang all day long at home while she worked.   The children were raised in a very musical environment.

One day, mother drew a large map of Asia which covered the whole dining room table. She thought that by making this map, the children would play with cards and dice. If someone had a question on the front of the card, he could throw the dice and see who’d have the highest score and then make a move on the map.  What a good idea for both fun and education!

Another event, during the Great Depression an exhausted man knocked on our door for a meal.  He had not eaten for three days.  My mother, always so generous  served him three large bowls of milk, bread  and sugar. When he  had finished his meal, we  children who had been playing outside, burst into the kitchen, surprised to see someone there and he also asked in surprise, “But are all of these children yours?” When she agreed, he became very emotional to see that although she had a large family, my mother had welcomed and fed him.  When he left he said, “If ever I find work, I’ll remember you.”

During the following summer holidays, at noon one day, we children entered for our regular meal and for the first time my mother said “My dear children, I have nothing more to give you. There is no food in the house!”  However we loved our mother so much that her sadness moved us so much that we felt for her more than for the lack of food.   “It’s nothing, Maman, we’ll go back outside to play.” But taking advantage of this doubly vulnerable situation we asked for permission to play in the hayloft of the barn where we had made hammocks suspended from the beams and where we used to have so much fun!  But for the past few weeks, my father had forbidden us to go there because the frame-work of the barn had been shaken by our vigorous swinging.

My mother could not refuse us this pleasure saying she’d explain it all to our father later. After many hours of absolute fun in the hay loft, even forgetting our missed meal, we heard our mother call us from a-far. Hurriedly we ran and upon entering the kitchen, we were all stunned; we could smell the delicious odors of roasted fish.  But, we wondered, where this fish came from!  My mother explained that Divine Providence had come to our rescue at the right time.

“After you left to play in the hay loft, I was outside on the porch when I heard the sound of a car honking, and I saw a stranger making large arm signs to come to him. I waved to him although I did not know him, then I went in to wash some clothes and a few hours later I went outside to hang up a large bed-sheet on the clothes-line, when all of a sudden, I saw two men and one cried out “It’s her, by golly, that’s her.” A bit scared I hesitated and backed away. “Don’t you remember me? I came here last summer because I was dying of hunger and you served me three large bowls of milk, bread and sugar.  I told you that if ever I could, I would repay you for the deed?  Well, I’ve just sold my fish in the city, but here is what I kept just for your family.”  He turned and went back to the car to get six large fresh fish.

What joy it was to sit at the dinner table at four o’clock in the afternoon; however regardless of our joy we were saddened to see our mother unable to join us. From her very young days, she had eaten the spleen of a fish and  nearly died and since then she was highly allergic.  Even touching a fish soon brought on her allergies.  She was with us but could not eat this delicious meal; already she was covered in red rashes: her arm, her mouth and her eyelids.

Ref.  Therese Potvin

When I say that there are geniuses in this family, I’m referring to Albert, aged over 90 at this printing (2015)…He has written the story of his family in a 375-page book.  I can also add that in the 40 years I’ve  been doing genealogical research, of all the books I’ve seen, I must add that it takes a genius to produce what he has done when he was probably 94.  During this time, he made violins, 5-6 of them at a time.  Every day, he’d work at the same stage on each  violin and after one year, he’d have finished 6 violins, and he was a perfectionist also!

During the second World War, the Potvin family had 8 members in the military service.  There could have been 10, but two were refused because of minor health problems.
                                     Date of article - September 26th, 1934

                        Lorette Povin Malone with her sisters Rita + Antoinette  
                      Thank You Lorette pour having lend all your information.