Gisèle P.

A retired piano teacher but still a music lover, Gisèle grew up in the Sault-au-Récollet district on St-Firmin Street. Her family lived there from 1955 to 1968. As a child, she studied at the neighborhood Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens School.

With a husband who had a successful career in sales and enjoyed several promotions, she moved over a dozen times, including once to Toronto. Until recently, she lived in Anjou.

As a music teacher, she was able to give recognized courses from her home. This allowed her to have a career of her own while raising her children. She was, over the years, linked to institutions like CEGEP St-Laurent, Collège Marie-Victorin and schools in Beloeil and Granby. While I was trying to find the right shooting angle for the photo below, I noted that she had retained her methodical and attentive teaching skills. One could hear it when she sat at the piano with her friend Nicole to practice a four hands piece.

Together, the two friends lead, with the help of a few other residents, a friendly group of people who meet several times a year to sing without rehearsals. The organizers choose, print and distribute the texts of French songs for the group, which can sometimes reach up to 130 participants.

In addition to the concerts of the Musical Sundays at the Maison Symphonique, Gisèle attends several other concerts. This is how she discovered some of the venues of the Réseau Accès culture. Nevertheless, she prefers the acoustics of some churches that do better justice to the music.

If your steps take you one day to Les Jardins Millen and you hear melodic notes from the grand piano, she may very well be the one playing!

Gisèle  with Nicole at the piano

Nicole T

It was the day after the inauguration of a pedestrian street section on Park Stanley Avenue that I met Nicole and her friend Gisèle. These two retired ladies are both condo owners in Les Jardins Millen. Nicole told me that she was the first person to acquire a unit of this project when it was launched. Her choice was already made. She appreciated the concept, the vicinity to the metro and the neighborhood, having been a resident of Ahuntsic in the 60s with her parents on Séguin Street.

See how times change: as young girl, she followed the philo 1 and 2 program at Collège Marie-Anne, a normal school for girls. At the time, the Sisters of St. Anne who taught there considered that Nicole had the talent required to undertake advanced studies in piano. She chose instead the path of social work and had a long career in this field. Today part of the CSDM, this same school welcomes a regional clientele of students determined to resume their studies or continue them in a context more favorable to their success. You have to see the crowd who gets off at the bus # 121 stop: it includes representatives from around the world!

Another sign of significant change, Nicole experienced the last days of the Hôpital St-Jean-de-Dieu, who was overcrowded with patients, many of whom did not belong there at all. In the 70s, at a time when the institution was renamed Hôpital Louis-Hyppolite-Lafontaine, or more familiarly Louis-H, the turn to ambulatory care was just beginning.

Nicole lived until recently in Outremont. She has a daughter, who now lives in Switzerland. Having kept her love for music, she made friends with Gisèle, a retired piano teacher, upon her arrival to Les Jardins Millen. You can learn more about their common musical projects by reading the text on Gisèle.

These two ladies are as friendly as dynamic.

Nicole T.

Florian R.

I met Florian at his brand new job. He will likely be the most recent local resident of this series. Indeed, on June 1st of this year, he started working at Ville en Vert, an organization whose mission is to raise awareness, educate and support both citizens and organizations in sustainable development in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville area.

Florian is from the Toulouse region in Southwestern France. After studying in a different field, he turned to horticulture, thus following the path of an elder sister. Looking for a program that met his aspirations, he chose the Cégep régional de Lanaudière offering and recently graduated from its Joliette campus. Incidentally, it is through fellow students who are now his roommates in Ahuntsic that he came to know the neighborhood.

I took his picture in the vegetable garden of the Collège André-Grasset on the day Ville en Vert took over its maintenance at the request of the college’s adviser for environment and sustainable development. The garden needed urgent attention, starting with a good weeding. I imagine that despite commendable efforts by the college, it is more difficult to find volunteer student gardeners in the summer!

Florian hopes the produce of this garden can eventually contribute to the food supply of Les Haltes Maraichères Ahuntsic, a mobile market held weekly in various locations during the summer.

When I asked him to describe himself in a word, he answered “uncertain”. There surely was a part of normal adaptation to his new environment behind that answer. It should also be noted that he is currently working on the basis of a three year post-diploma visa. In addition, as the government program that gave tuition parity to French citizens has been abolished − although our Prime Minister regularly says it will take more immigrants in the coming years −, the barriers to immigration remain important for newcomers.

It would be interesting to take a new picture in three years to see where he will be!

Have a good summer, Florian!

Florian taking over the vegetable garden of Collège André-Grasset left in need of good care.

See Florian with colleagues from Ville en vert

Julie R.

There are sometimes strangers who are not totally unknown to us. Before I met Julie on the bank of the river from which she had just pulled out her kayak, I had seen a photo of her taken by Mr. Philippe Rachiele in the June 12, 2015 edition of the journaldesvoisins.com. In this photo, we could see her on foot on Somerville Street, pulling her kayak mounted on small wheels toward the river. Mr. Rachiele was probably not the first to photograph her. She said she had a talented photographer for companion during a period of her life.

Julie is originally from Sherbrooke, where she had already taken a liking to the water. Today resident of Ahuntsic, she has been living in Montreal for over twenty years. She would like to return to the Eastern Townships when she retires, possibly in a small cottage at first.

She has been working for many years at the head office of a major Québec firm as administrative assistant. Such a job being undoubtedly demanding, kayaking and the contact with the river are her ways to relieve stress. "It’s a lot cheaper than therapy!" she says.

The evening on the river must have been particularly pleasing that day: light wind, beautiful sky and no speeding motorboats to disturb its tranquility. Having myself paddled between the Beauséjour Park and the ARAC kayak rental kiosk behind the Sophie-Barat highschool, I can confirm that some Sundays are much less zen when motorized traffic becomes heavy.

It would be pleased to cross Julie’s path again this summer, but this time on the river.

Julie a few feet from the river in the Maurice Richard Park (previoulsy Stanley Park).