Though she may have been born in Canada, Gaetane Lavertu has called the St. John Valley home for most of her life. Born in 1945, she moved to the Valley when she was 19.
While she was growing up, Lavertu and her family lived on an island in Baker Brook, New Brunswick, a village situated by the St. John River, the waters of which separate Canada and the United States.
“In the wintertime, when the ice was really thick, we’d cross onto the American side, where we had friends,” she said of her childhood.
As a youngster, Lavertu played softball in the fields with her friends and neighbors. She also participated enthusiastically in broomball on ice, a sport similar to a mix between hockey and soccer, and was disappointed when she had to give it up temporarily.
“At some point, I needed an appendectomy and I was supposed to be on rest there for a while, but I was anxious to go back on ice with my broomball,” she said. “[Then] I fell so hard and banged my head, so I had to delay my activities longer because of my fall there.”
For 10 years, Lavertu worked at the Fraser Paper Mill in Madawaska as the on-site nurse, then moved on to High View Manor as the activities director. She said she took the day position at High View “to follow my sons’ activities.”
“One son was more of a bookworm and the other one was all about sports — baseball, softball, soccer,” she said.
Lavertu’s first husband left when the boys were young, a situation which was difficult for the whole family. She resorted to taking classes on, as she described it, “how to handle my kids,” which she said helped her parent her two boys.
She volunteered with the Cub Scouts, which helped keep her kids busy, and also did some volunteer work with the church store. In Canada, she helped the nuns out with transportation and other needs they had.
Currently, Lavertu volunteers with catechism classes for Catholic youth, providing assistance to the teacher.
“My favorite experience right now is with the kids,” she said. “I enjoy that because they are different characters. Some are active, so you have to be easygoing. You have to try to keep them quiet so they can learn, so we have to be very sensitive to them at the same time. I enjoy it but it is demanding.”
Lavertu loves drawing, though she said she hasn’t done much this year as she is still adjusting to her new home at Country Village Estates. The 74-year-old had a tough winter last year after she had a fall on the ice which injured her sciatic nerve area. That’s when she made the decision to move into the facility.
“I told myself, ‘If I am able to walk down, then I will come with my little suitcase, and if not I will slide on it,’” she joked.
Since her move to Country Village Estates, Lavertu has happily adjusted and continues to volunteer in the community. She does get a kick, though, out of the fact that she has slipped into some of her “former ways.”
“When I was working at the mill and High View, my accent was less, and my English was better,” she said with a chuckle. “But nowadays, I’ve lost some of it.”
