Aunt Jean was the first of three children born to Grampa and GG. She was born January 10, 1923 in Shawmont, Waterville, Maine. She was baptized on April 15 at the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Waterville.
Aunt Jean worked from the moment she could walk out the door of the Mattawa childhood home, continuing to work throughout most of her life while raising four daughters. The story below is based on Mom’s memories and the many conversations she had with Aunt Jean about her life.
Aunt Jean opted to leave home at the age of 14 to work as a live-in mother’s helper for pregnant women during those postnatal months before moving on to the next woman. At that time, women didn’t have their babies in hospitals so they needed help at home. At one of the places, she met Walter Gardener who asked her to be a live-in housekeeper with his niece, Mrs. Dave Nugent, who was having a baby in Deux Riviere. She also worked as a house maid for Joe Rochon’s family. Through Dave Nugent, Aunt Jean met Carson Curry. They would go for walks together.
They had only dated for about three months when Carson asked Jean to get married, which they did in 1940 when she was 17. Rev. Penman was the minister and his wife was Aunt Jean’s witness. Because Carson had no witness, they walked down Main Street, North Bay and bumped into Joseph St. Denis, who Aunt Jean knew as a brother of a friend of Mary’s and would become Carson’s marriage witness.
They lived for a few months with Carson’s Dad, then rented a little house in Deux Riviere for a few months. Carson then got a job with the CPR in Mattawa where they bought a little house, “then a bigger one, then a better one”.
Aunt Jean and Uncle Carson lived in Mattawa for many years, before eventually moving to North Bay.
Aunt Jean got a job at Eaton’s Department Store as a sales clerk where she continued to work even after it was bought by Walker’s Department Stores.
Carson worked at Harvey Street Public School as a janitor. In his retirement years, he did odd jobs for neighbours.
Aunt Jean wouldn’t eat chicken because she remembered as a child having to hold the chickens down while their heads were being cut off and having to watch the headless chickens run around the barnyard.
When Carson died, Aunt Jean sold the house on Copeland Street, North Bay, and moved into the Empire Retirement home. The running joke was that Aunt Jean, with her kitty, ran the place. She was in Unit #1, right at the front door and, more likely than not, would be the first person to see and greet people who arrived. She thrived there, but then again, Aunt Jean, as well as Mom and Uncle Phill, were survivors and thrivers.
Aunt Jean hated to take pills and went on brisk walks where her arms got just as much exercise as her legs, my Mom would say.
My Mom journalled between 1941-1943 that she went “home” to Mattawa on Christmas day, with one meal with her parents and half-siblings and another meal at Jean’s. And she had a “swell” time.
Aunt Jean died in 2021 at the age of 98. She had four daughters (one adopted), eight grandchildren, one predeceasing her, and many great-grandchildren.
Did Aunt Jean show any evidence of childhood trauma? I didn’t know her home life very well. We visited a lot when I was young and everything seemed normal. But my version of “normal” was my mother’s version of “normal”. Spotless house, spotless children, amazing food.
I remember one time Aunt Jean came to visit my parents in Gravenhurst. Mom scrubbed and cleaned the house spotless in preparation. Mom found Aunt Jean in the kitchen scrubbing her sink. “Jean! I just cleaned that sink!” Aunt Jean stopped and laughed. “Joan, you know I can’t help it.” Then she went around the house with a little bowl of milk and a cottonball, and “washed” all the leaves of Mom’s plants. I have to say, it did make the leaves shine.
