Nicole Lépine devoted 35 years of her life to teaching French in secondary schools. She is retired, has no children, and her nephews live outside of Montreal. The opportunities to meet young people are becoming rarer than before, let’s say.
La Longueuilloise volunteers for the Bibliothèque et Archives nationaux du Québec (BAnQ). When librarian Caroline Malo asked her to participate in a project that would allow her to establish links with students at an adult education center, Nicole Lépine accepted with pleasure.
“I like to be in the know,” she says, referring to the world of young people. “And it’s to help them express themselves better in French,” explains M.me Lépine. Once a teacher, always a teacher.
Since March, in preparation for Quebec Intergenerational Week which is being held from May 19 to 25, seniors (from the Friends of BAnQ and the Senior Citizens’ Council) have worked alongside a group of young people from the training center on four occasions. for adults Gédéon-Ouimet, which welcomes allophone students and others who are dropping out of secondary school. The goal of the pilot project: to break the isolation on both sides, create bridges, and simply be together.
During the first meeting, in March, they did an icebreaker activity by taking turns presenting an object that represented them. The second time they watched a movie – Back to the Future. The third time, they made a business card together in the creative workshop located inside the walls of the Grande Bibliothèque, in the Latin Quarter, in Montreal.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Psychosocial worker Alexandra Casteneda Henriquez supports young people from the Gédéon-Ouimet center.
And this cloudy Thursday in May, the small mismatched group walks through the bright library to discover archive photographs paired with photographs of families from today. The theme of the exhibition, signed by photographer Mikaël Theimer, is fitting: Cohabitation today…families of yesteryear.
Daphne Barest, a 22-year-old young woman who has returned to high school, looks at a photo of a Quebec family on a picnic in 1925. She focuses on the people’s faces. “They didn’t smile much back in the day,” she points out. The elders around her explain to her that at the time, people’s teeth were quickly “spoiled”. “And the children look like they’re scared,” adds Daphne. “They weren’t used to taking their place, the children…” confided Diane Laberge, an elder volunteer.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Daphne Barest is front left. Behind her, Diane Laberge (in burgundy) and Nicole Lépine (in white).
Meanwhile, Nicole Lépine inquires about the future plans of sisters Lauren and Ana Laura Medina, two Cubans aged 17 and 19 who arrived in Canada last year. One wants to be a doctor and the other a psychologist. “Be persistent,” advises Nicole, happy, too, to be able to pass on a little Quebec culture to newcomers.
This is the kind of exchange and contact that librarian Caroline Malo hoped to generate by setting up this project, which will end this week, at the end of the fifth and final meeting. The young people who participated in the activities varied throughout the process, but Caroline Malo witnessed some touching moments.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Caroline Malo
Our society is fragmented: young with young, old with old, families with families. That concerns us, the coexistence between different audiences. You have to provoke events for that to happen.
Caroline Malo, librarian responsible for developing services for seniors at BAnQ
Caroline Malo also wishes to reproduce the experience this year, perhaps with seniors in residence or in CHSLDs.
“It was embarrassing at first,” confides young Daphne Barest, who attended all the meetings. But it opened my mind. The older you get, the less you feel that you are aging, even if your body continues to age. And one day, it will be my turn. »