Marie's Sister, Lucy

Lucy Helen Larcenaire

Charlie, Lucy, Pauline
Lucy's husband Moe

Marie has told me a lot about Lucy because she was the baby that you see Marie holding in the Aubin portrait. I didn't think that Marie had a picture of Lucy when she was a grown up and I just couldn't believe it. One day I was dusting her electric organ that sits behind her easy chair. Propped on it was a picture of her granddaughter, great granddaughter and two great great grandsons. I picked it up, dusted it, set it down, moved to the next picture and picked it up. I though, "I've never seen this before." I looked and looked at it and I showed it to Fran. He said, "Well that's Charlie and Aunt Pauline. I believe that's Aunt Lucy and her husband." I wasn't satisfied with, "I believe." So I sent a copy of this picture to Charlie and he verified that it was indeed, Lucy. So then I showed it to Marie and pointed to Lucy's picture and asked her who it was. She whispered, "Lucy." I could have cried. I should have asked her first. I should have noticed the picture. My excuse is, I don't have one.
On to the story. When Lucy was born, Marie was working. In those days a father could go to his daughter's boss and announce that she would be gone two weeks because her mother was going to have a baby. Marie would be needed at home. Imagine that. Well there were problems, so Marie was needed at home for three weeks and again she was able to keep her job.
An interesting footnote is that Marie was never allowed to bathe the "boy babies" just the girls. Marie packed school lunches, did laundry, cleaning and lots and lots of baking and cooking. Since her mother's recovery was slow, Marie also did the majority of the care for the new baby.
I talked to Lucy's daughter and she gave me some fun facts about her mother. When June, Lucy's daughter was twenty years old, she taught herself how to quilt. She loved it. She got good at it and decided to give lessons. She invited her mother to her first class. June said that was the start of many beautiful quilts that Lucy made.
The following is a beautiful write up that June sent me for you all to enjoy reading:
"From as early as I can remember, my mom knew how to do almost anything. She sewed all of our clothes and taught us how to sew as soon as we could reach the sewing machine pedal. When we were toddlers, she actually took apart her wool coats to make our snow suits. She always made us beautiful dresses and coats with matching hats for Easter and other occasions. There wasn't anything she couldn't make. She also made beautiful coats, shirts, and pants for my dad.
She planted and worked big gardens in our yard to help feed our family and to teach us a valuable life lesson too. She canned and preserved anything she could.
She loved leather work and made my dad beautiful wallets and belts with beautiful pictures on them. I remember baking with her for an entire day at a time. We would separate and freeze all kinds of cookies and treats to be taken out and enjoyed later.
Mom was always the one to handle the budget and financial matters as well. She pinched pennies and made their money last into retirement. This was amazing since my dad retired pretty early. Mom stayed home with us kids until I was in high school. Then she went to work at Modern Tool and Die. There she was the equivalent of an Accountant and she also managed the office. She was so good at numbers that she actually showed the accountants new ways to do things. It was great for her to see how smart she was. Something moms are not always told enough of.
In her later years when her health issues became so great. she really enjoyed staying in touch with her surviving siblings. She was proud to talk to me about them. She was so proud of Aunt Marie turning 100."
Now I will add that I did in fact, get to talk to Lucy on the phone about the time that Marie was celebrating her 100th birthday. When I told Marie that she had called and had sent her best wishes, Marie was so pleased. Of course, Marie started telling me stories. For me that day was a memory maker.