Marie-Justina-Laura  BEAUCHEMIN

Father's Death
When Laura was four years opld her father died. As her mother had no income and many children, most of them were taken in by family members. Laura went to live with a relative of her mother's, Alphonse Archambault, who was a farmer in Valleyfield Québec. Torn from her mother and siblings at such an early age and brought up by strangers must have been very traumatic for such a small child. No matter how kind the aunt and uncle were, to little Laura they were not 'Maman' and 'Papa.'

My grandmother never spoke of those years but I think that it was the estrangement from her family that formed her character. Through her whole life she clung to her own children and grandchildren, kept them close and ruled the whole household.