Youth Memories

Autumn was very cold that year. Dorcina cursed every day to be a prisoner in this wild country.

Thirty-three years old, she was still young despite her numerous childbirths. Dorcina had promised herself not to stay, like her mother, in a land of colonization. Cécile would be the last to be born in such destitution.

Dorcina would later relate that at that point she had thought, "Never again. I'm leaving here! whether Edward follows me or not. It’s decided: misery for me is over! "

She was right, thinks Cécile, looking at the sleeping child. A smile lights up her face as she remembers the audacity of her mother who, one summer morning, took the train to Montreal, with her 7-year-old daughter, Germaine.

The day before, Dorcina hd said to her husband: "Édouard, I'm leaving with Germaine. I will find accommodation in Montreal and then come back to pack our bags. Toinette, Marie-Anne and Eugénie will take care of the little ones during my trip. "

In the train leaving from Lac Saguay in Mont-Laurier County, haughty, showing off her new headdress bought for the occasion, little Germaine stuck her head throught the window of the train to taunt her brother and her six sisters who remained on the dock. Imagine! Go alone with her mother for an exotic trip to the Big City where we ride on trams!

Suddenly, the wind caused by the departure of the convoy blew up the beautiful straw hat. The little girl saw the white ribbon fly away. She didn't notice her mother's wet eyes.

     Dorcina's journey lasted 3 days. During their stay in the town, they lived at Joseph and Alma, her eldest daughter who, at 17, had just given birth to little Aurore.

      On her return, full of projects, proud of her success, head held high and a rental lease in her bag, Dorcina think of Édouard: if he wasn't waiting for her on the station platform? At what price would their love pay for the ultimatum she gave him? Did she just, on a whim, destroy the only environment possible for her man to thrive?

     Dorcina knew that Edouard liked to work in construction sites. Without a job, how to survive in the big city? Of course, she had done her part, eighteen years in the woods was no small feat.

      When the train stopped, the strong feeling of having cheated on her husband squeezed her chest. Carrying her suitcases and holding Germaine by the hand, she saw Edouard waiting for her.

     Years later, she will remember this image: Édouard, a man with his blue eyes, graying and curly hair, standing in front of her in the kitchen.

- Dorcina, I thought a lot during your trip and made my decisions. 
He stopped talking for a moment; Dorcina held her breath.

- Okay, we're moving to Montreal. Just yesterday I gave my instructions to the foreman. I am still young and worse the construction sites, it is not a future for the children. So if it's okay with you, we'll leave as soon as possible. "

     Dorcina understood her man's sacrifice for her. Never did she receive a more tender declaration of love. Emotionally, she snuggled up in her husband's arms.

Cécile left her thoughts when she heard her sister.

- Fortunately, you come to help me, really Cecile, you're very kind.

- I had nothing to do answers Cécile. Putting canned pickles in the store all day isn’t

very interesting. So, coming to rock your Lucien from time to time, it changes my ideas. "

A little nostalgic, Cécile hums a melody from the singer Berthe Sylva "C’est l’enfant de la misère que l’on vient de ramasser…” 

- Please Cécile, shut up!! Don’t you think I’ve had enough?

Cécile is a little embarrassed by her blunder, says: “Oh excuse me, Toinette, I wasn’t thinking of you. 

- Yes I know answers Toinette, but I can tell you that it is not easy with four children and a husband who drinks.

Yesterday it was my 6 old daughter who had to pick her father up from the tavern. Can you imagine!! Can you imagine!! Apart from that, in addition, he doesn’t give a cent.

- How do you manage to endure?

- At night, when he sleeps, I get up and take what he has in his pockets, said Toinette. Just what I need for the kids. Misery, I'm starting to know that.

- Yet you loved that one, interrupts Cécile.

- Oh ! Yes ! I loved it ! remembers Antoinette.

- Do you remember when you spent hours doing makeup for him?

- Yes and you, little rascal, you put yourself behind me to make fun of me.

- Well no, Toinette, I was just imitating your grimaces laughs Cécile.

- Ah, how handsome he was, Gerard!

- He’s still beautiful, encourages Cécile.

- Yes you are right.

- Hey, asks Cécile to change the subject, do you remember when uncle Cloutier left for Abitibi?

- Yes, it was mentioned that mom and dad are going with him. Dad was very excited to be going there, but for mom, it was not.

- Why did they all want to go to Abitibi?

- I'm not sure, I think the government was offering plots of land. You know, during the Depression it wasn't easy for anyone, especially big families. We, the older ones, helped a little by working in the factory or as a room maid for the bourgeois; with all his children, dad was not earning enough. The summer was no worse, but the winter there was no work for the carpenters.

- How did they manage to survive?

- Blah! we ate “baloney” in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Mom was frying it, it changed the taste. There was also the “Secours Direct”, Dad went to get bags of flour and also sugar.

- He must be embarrassing, proud as he is!

- Oh sure! At first, he used the alleyway so as not to be noticed, but when he saw that all the neighbors were doing the same, they were going together. You know Dad, in the end it turned into a real party.

- He’s always brave, don't you think?

-There are times when you have no choice, my dear sister, concludes Antoinette.

- However, it seems that uncle Cloutier made a lot of money there. He has opened a wooded enclosure and it work very well.

- Yes, says Antoinette, but don't forget that uncle Edmond Forget came back quickly, before the first winter. It’s not the same for everyone. "

The young mother goes back to her laundry, letting her sister come back to her thoughts.

It is at Christmas that their engagement will be celebrated at Saint Joseph Oratory. A public celebration of more than 20 couples met in marriage preparation classes given by Abbot Sanschagrin.

Cécile and Frank on their engagement day

Saint-Joseph Oratory

Abbot Robert Sanschagrin

 It was Fernande, her fellow YCW member, who told her about this preparation. They liked the idea.

     Cécile met Francesco Di Lalla in April 1937 on a raffle night. This handsome man of Italian origin was a charmer. He was working at a ring-throwing stand. She was a bit bored despite the company of Carlo and a friend. Arrived at the gaming table, their eyes met: it was love at first sight. A chill invades their bodies to the soul.

     Daring, Frank had a note delivered for 5 cents by a messenger of the fair.
“A ma belle inconnue". Cecile hugged this sweet word to her heart.

     The next evening, already, their first date.

     At Christmas, Frank will wait for the Sanctus to put the ring on his finger in order to call God to witness their love and get his blessings.

Cécile always rocks little Lucien, thinking about the alterations she will have to do on the black velvet princess dress that she sewed for the big event.

The crew neckline, the puffed sleeve ending in a bracelet will give volume to her delicate silhouette.

     She will also wear the gift her fiancé gave her: a big ruby set on a wedding ring in 10 carat gold with a latch containing the photo of her future husband. Of course, the stone is fake, but the gold is real. And then, this jewel contains all their love. She will be splendid adorned with magnificent accessories.

Despite mom's worries, Frank is the man of my life.

 - “Come on, Cécile,” said her mother, “do you realize! An Italian ! They all beat their wives! Remember the neighbor on Casgrain’s street… Be careful, my daughter, you might regret it. "

     With sad eyes, Cécile sees the scene she had with her mother again. Decidedly no one understands the depth of her love and her ardent desire to become his wife.

- You are very in love with your Italian to agree to get married during the war, says Antoinette.

     With conscription, he could go and fight in the Old Countries anytime. Me in your place, I would think twice before going to the altar. You know, believe my experience, at first, it's paradise, then ...

     - You Toinette, have you spoken to Mom lately? "

      Not supporting that his private life is attacked, angry, Cécile says: “Frank, I marry him because I love him and if he has to go to war, we will organize ourselves”.

     - OK, I understand that's your choice, said the elder, realizing the depth of her sister's dilemma.

     However, the young man quickly conquered the Lorion’s family. Hard-working, amiable, laughing and inteligent; his friends confirm it: “He is good and generous! He's the perfect man. "

 The young woman remembers this Saturday July 13, 1940, the day after the passage of the War Measures Act.

     Accompanied by their friends, Victor and Jeanne for a walk in “Parc Belmont”, Jeanne proposed: "Suppose we get married tomorrow? It would save our fiancés from war. Mens who marry afterwards will be considered single and will be mobilized. In August, they will be part of the first promotion of conscripts on the National list.

      Emotions were on edge: pleasure, anguish, joy, sadness, ambition. Unlike her friends, Cécile felt free, free, free. Hadn't his sister Germaine announced this morning her hasty marriage to Roland Tremblay for the same reasons?

     Wedding celebrations were announced in all the churches in the city. The race for white dresses, suits, ties and patent shoes was in full swing. All of Montreal seemed feverish. Even some jewelers sold gold wedding rings at the doors of churches.

     The idea made Cécile euphoric. They would get married on Sunday. Exceptionally, the priests had agreed to waive the publication of the banns. No wedding, no show, just both, Francesco and she!

     However… Cécile refused.

     The decision was not easy to take. She held the life of her beloved in her hands. If he was sent overseas despite promises of Prime Minister King's.

Did she have the right to postpone her engagement? Would she be able to survive with the weight of her choice? Was she up to their love?

William Lyon Macenzie King
Prime Minister of Canada

 To speed up the pace of wedding blessings, parishes hold group weddings. One of these ceremonies will take place at “Parc Jarry” in Montreal. It will bring together several hundred couples who are trying to circumvent the Law on the compulsory enrollment of young single men.



     This event gave rise to incidents of all kinds; the florists could not keep up with demand; the taxi drivers were overbooked. On Saturday evening, clothing stores and jewelry stores were very busy; some merchants have even been invited to open on Sundays. For their part, the population found an interesting distraction: the churches were crowded all day and all evening, and there were many people on the scene to see the newlyweds. In several cases, honeymoons have been postponed.

Cécile wanted to be sure that love would be the only motivation for their union. Not a marriage of convenience. If the war should separate them, so be it.

     Accepting her decision, Frank replied in Dante's language: "Qui va piano, va sano, va lontano" (Who wants to travel far, spares his horse)

 Monique, Antoinette's eldest, is coming home from school. Hugging her Clementine doll in her arms, she tells about her day. Chance had wanted her to be placed in the first row. The young schoolgirl loved this place, so the responsibility to open the door to visitors fell to her. She felt valued by this honor.

     Sister Agnès asked her to change places because she did not have the regulation costume.
      -It's been three weeks since school started and it's not fair to other rule-abiding children.

      Monique knew her mother couldn’t offer her this costume. Sad, she went to sit at the back of the class.

      That day, the great Florent knocked on the classroom door and entered with a crate of bottles of milk. Monique had never seen one like it. Sister Agnès asked who wanted it. 

      Delighted, Monique raised her right hand, but Sister Agnès refused, saying: "Your father works Monique, the free milk is for the poor, not for those who waste their money. "

      Monique did not understand. How could she waste the money she didn't have?

     At recess, with her best friend Rita, they jump rope together. The day before, Sister Agnès spoke to Rita. Monique asks her why, Rita replies: “ Sister Agnès, she says your father spends all his time at the tavern and he’s a drunk For that, I couldn’t play with you anymore”.

     Grieved, Monique swears that she will not go back to school. Exhausted by her tears, she falls asleep in her mom's arms.

     Antoinette gently lifts her daughter with a sigh. Life does not give gifts. This injustice breaks his heart. From now on, Monique will no longer suffer from her teacher's meanness, she will stay at home.

     In the bedroom, she lays her little girl on an old folding bed covered with second-hand coats as a mattress, she covers her with the quilt made by Dorcina

     When she leaves the room, she hears her younger daughter humming “Quand il me prend dans ses bras, qu’il me parle tout bas, je vois la vie en rose…”

     - Love, always love, exclaims Antoinette, take advantage of it, you are young, pretty and in love. You are very lucky!

     - Yes, you got it confirms Cécile. And I also like to sing and go to the cinema to see Tino Rossi’s views.

     - Marinella…. sings Antoinette while dancing with an imaginary dancer…. reste encore un peu dans mes bras, avec toi nuit et jour, je veux danser mon amour…

     - Oh you are crazy Toinette, laught Cécile!!! You did not change !!!

      - You can tell it! and I don't want change anything.

      - Only one question asks Cécile, how is it that Marie-Anne does not have baby. 

      She and her husband Maurice Houle have been married for 5 years, and they don’t seem to want it.

     - You don't have to have kids every year if you don't want them," said the eldest. Me, I had 5 in 5 years, and then I stop it. I decided that was enough.

     - Isn't it a sin to think like this? asks Cécile.

     - Sin ... or not sin ... it's the same, when a priest refuses you absolution, you enter the confessional next door, with the hope that another priest will grant you absolution.

     Do you want to know my secret?

     - Well, since I'm getting married next year, you can tell me.

     - Of course, it's not Mom who will tell you about this. Nor the priests in your marriage preparation classes, says Antoinette ironically. And since Alma's death last summer, I’m the oldest adds she to justify herself.

     - Basically, it's simple. Mom had 14 children, her mother had almost as many, and she died at 36. But today it's not the same. We want to live for us too. We need to stop seeing women as just good at giving birth to babies. In the countryside, no one dared to contradict the priests. But, in town, the women give advice to each other.
People are practicing abstinence now, so that we can space the pregnancies. For Marie-Anne, the main thing that matters is Maurice. She never had any patience with children. And she doesn't look unhappy.

     - I don't want a dozen kids either said Cécile. Frank and I worse, we want four, no more. But I still have trouble understanding Marie-Anne.

     - We don't have to understand, concludes Antoinette, everyone does what they want.

     Antoinette goes back to her laundry and Cécile in her daydreams.

 If her mother had managed to get her father out of the yards and come to town, Cécile knows that she will organize herself well not to spend her life changing diapers.

 Antoinette looks out the window. It's snowing!

     - I think we are going to have a beautiful white Christmas.

Cécile remembers New Year's Eve from the previous year. His parents were expecting about sixty people. There was a lot of commotion on the 24th.

     Everyone got up early to prepare for the reception.

     As soon as they got up, Edward and Paul, the youngest born when his father's head had already turned white, unmade the beds. During this time, Dorcina and Cécile folded the sheets and the blankets while the men carried the box springs, the headboards and the footboards, the chests of drawers of the shed.

     In the back room, the gramophone has been installed so that the young people could dance.

     In the living room, Edouard moved the dining room table to free up space so that Joseph Tessier could play with his violin. 

     Dorcina and Cécile did not go to mass to be able to prepare the meal. Dorcina walked to the back door of the apartment to retrieve her donuts, pies, meat pies, pork feet stew, which she had stored in the gallery cupboard.

     She shivered as she felt the cold. She quickly closed the kitchen door. She walked through the gallery and was surprised to find that the padlock was gone and the door was ajar. She was sure she was going to make an unpleasant discovery. For a moment, she hesitated to open the door. She turned on the light and saw the disaster in amazement. All the boxes containing the meal were gone.

     - Cecile, someone stole the food!!!

     Stunned, Dorcina wondered how she was going to repair the damage.

     Half an hour later, she broke the bad news to the guests.

     No problem, the women quickly found a solution. One of them went to get a ham, another, several meat pies. Fortunately, the turkey had remained in the oven and the desserts were kept in the pantry.

     With everyone's help, there was plenty of food. Even the cantankerous Aunt Olivine had left satisfied.

 For Cécile, this Christmas 1941 will be memorable. A beautiful white Christmas and a new stage in her life. A Christmas as if the whole earth covered the ground with her bridal veil.

  The marriage of Frank Di Lalla and Cécile Lorion was celebrated on May 25, 1942. Frank received the convocation of his engagement in the spring of 1943, but benefited from an extension, because Cécile was pregnant: their first child was born on August 14, 1943.



     Their second child was born in 1946, the third and fourth in 1949 and 1950. After that, Cécile succeeded in controlling the number of births.

  Edward died in 1947, on his 69th birthday. Dorcina joined him in 1960.

Dorcina and Édouard with 9 of their 14 children and their spouse.
Photo taken in Montreal in 1946 after Paul's return from the war.
Cécile is the 4th from the right. Frank is behind her. Antoinette is in the center, next to Marie-Anne. Gérard is on her left. Germaine is the 2nd, on the left, Roland is on her left.

​​​​​​​     Monique dropped out of school in the middle of her 3rd year. Marie-Anne has never had a child. In contrast, Monique gave birth to six boys. As for Antoinette, now a widow, she remarried at the age of 68 to a man who adored her. He was also called Gérard. Toinette told her little sister that she was very happy for the first time in her life. She died in 1979.

Paul married Yolande Mezzapella in 1947. They had three children. He passed away on Christmas 2007. Yolanda died from COVID-19 in 2020.

      Germaine married Roland Tremblay in 1940. They had 1 child. She died on February 24, 2007 at the age of 93.

     Cécile died on April 18, 1983 at the age of 64. Remarried six years later, Frank spent his winters in Florida with his second wife Claudia Young. He died in 2014.



     In 2021, 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren are descended from Cécile and Frank.