Late June and early July is celebration-a-go-go. Festivities are out the gate with la Saint Jean. This year it is all a very laid back affair at Jean and Cadi’s house in Ville Mercier. They’re the parents of five lovely kids ranging in age from 3 to 18. We love our visits here because they’re unhurried, down to earth (surrounded by farm fields) and accompanied by generous servings of fun and laughter.
In our eyes, Charles is a giant. One month older than Noah, he is a full head taller and heavier by about 5 kilos. He is the youngest of the five and gets love and teasing in equal measures from his siblings. He is like velcro on Nellie trying to capitalize on one of those rare occasions that he can boss and baby someone else. He and Noah play in parallel worlds that intersect at random junctions sometimes in laughter, sometimes in tears (mostly of the Noah variety). They are slowly developing a friendship over time through these one and two day visits.
Passy is a burst of sunshine. She’s always ready to strut her stuff on the public stage and she has lots to strut. At six, she is a good storyteller and a fine little artist. This is the second year in a row that we are receiving a Passy original, reproduced here for your pleasure. She is also quite athletic and has a love of cartwheeling about the house. This year she was in competitive track and raced to the finish line before all her classmates.
Fassily strikes me as Mr. Happy-go-Lucky. He’s a social guy who always seems up to try new things. He’s about 10 games into his team’s baseball season. It’s a game he truly enjoys. He’s a little dispirited that they’ve yet to chalk up a win this season but his papa reminds him that it’s still early days. He’s still in touch with one of his old buddies from Ville Lasalle who he’s got doing a little lawn mowing during his sleepover visit.
David is for me the quiet one. He’s off on a four day cycling adventure with school chums in the Eastern Townships. He’s excited about it in a subdued kind of way. He’s got all his gear together and is ready to get underway at some ungodly hour for a teen to get a drop from his papa at the start point.
Fanta is the oldest. She works part time at the butchers in the village and drops in with a couple of girl friends while we’re there. She’s talking about a visit to our house in Nova Scotia this summer. We’d love to have her come and stay with us. Jean and I have a cursory chat about rules and expectations and we’ll pick that up again once Fanta decides on a date. At 18, she’s just a year younger than Alexa and going into her second year at CÉGEP. If she makes it down our way, I’m sure there will be a couple of overnighters with Alexa and her crowd in the city.
Cadi and Jean must be doing lots of things right. All the kids are respectful, polite, well-behaved and full of the spark of life. They all have heaping helpings of curiosity too, an important driver of discovery and understanding. They’re helped in this fine work of raising five kids by Cadi’s maman, Madame Camara who has been living with them now for many years. This fall she’s off home to Guinée for a five month visit. She’ll be sorely missed by everyone in Ville Mercier.
Jean and I find some time to talk about our respective families – ageing parents, siblings, in-laws, discord, rapprochement. It’s a big canvas and so much larger for Jean because of the size of his family. He’s the baby amongst 7 or 8 brothers and sisters. He’s disappointed about societal norms around caring for the elderly particularly when they are infirm. The default position in many instances has become institutionalization with greater or lesser degrees of independence. Jean feels that the home option – en famille - is more loving and compassionate. In the case of loved ones who are ill, it would definitely be more work but Jean convincingly argues these are parents who cared for us through all our years of dependance. Now it’s our turn to live love, show respect and be a family.
Jean’s of the architect-farmer breed. He doesn’t farm actively at this point but it holds a great deal of interest for him. He spent time on his dad’s farm as a kid and worked on farms out west in his late teens. He even got some agricultural experience in New Zealand close to 30 years ago. What you may not know is that for a period of several months in 2008 and 2009, Jean was in all likelihood the only architect in Canada with a chicken, in total freedom, gambolling about his office. His dad saw it one morning and asked if he could take it. In trade, Jean is to get a few cows of the canadienne breed - there are only several hundred remaining. Jean wonders why there are no international campaigns for endangered domestic animals.
Jean tells me several hilarious work related stories associated with his private practice that have me teary-eyed. Because of the ‘it’s a small world’ syndrome and client confidentiality, I just can’t pass them on.
They’ve been in the new house for about three years now. It’s the house that Jean built – designed and constructed to his specifications. 
There is lots of natural light, cooling cross breezes and plenty of private and common space for everyone, including an office wing for Jean. It’s less than 20 clicks to the city and is located on prime farm land with fields stretching into the distance on both sides of the 138. It’s somewhat of a nature preserve too. There has been a snowy owl in residence. There is a fox that sweeps the area for mouth watering morsels. Groundhogs dig, burrow and tunnel when Jean is not trying to reduce their numbers by swinging a blunt instrument (a practice very much frowned upon by his children).
We don’t really do anything to mark la Saint-Jean. We eat a lovely meal of roasted beef brisket that Jean prepares, drink a little a wine and enjoy each other’s company before crashing for the night.
Next morning before we go, Noah and Charles are out playing with the big trucks in the mud pit. They’re dirty and smiling. Their abandon makes me think of a Québecois poem I loved on first reading, Le Jeu by Saint-Denys Garneau. It’s been a good visit.
