After the interview, Geneviève Elie wrote to me. She felt that she hadn’t answered one of my questions about her daughter well.
“You asked me to tell you about Isabelle.
“Her favorite color was purple, she dreamed of going to kindergarten, she loved it when it rained because putting on her rain boots and jumping in puddles gave her incredible happiness, she loved playing with her “babies ”, dolls of which she took great care.
“She used to spoon feed her little sister when she was a baby and put the pacifier back in her mouth so she wouldn’t cry.
“She liked to swim in the summer.
“She was sweet, caring, intelligent and wonderful. »
Isabelle died at Saint-Justine Hospital in 2014 from complications from a heart condition with a name as horribly – dilated spongiform cardiomyopathy – as the thought of a 3.5-year-old child dying so young…
Not to mention undiagnosed ischemia.
And to add to the ignominy, Geneviève was pregnant with her third daughter, Eléonore.
Isabelle was a wonderful little girl, she told me. An extraordinary big sister for Alice. It was… It was my whole life.
Genevieve Elie
A few times a year, Geneviève goes to meditate with her daughters at Isabelle’s grave.
Mother’s Day Sunday. October 9, the day of his death. Christmas Eve. And Isabelle’s birthday, February 22.
Let’s hit pause for some context here.
Without a contract for four years, the 90 union members of exterior maintenance went on strike in January 2023. Without a contract for five years, the 17 union members in the offices went on strike in September 2022.
Martin Petit, union representative for maintenance employees, told me about a negotiation that is not one: “They put things on the table, and their ‘negotiation’ is that it’s up to take it or leave it…”
I would have liked to speak to the president of the Notre-Dame parish factory, the priest Miguel Castellanos, who oversees the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery. I would have liked to speak to Jean-Charles Boily, CEO of La Fabrique.
PHOTO FROM THE NOTRE-DAME PARISH FACTORY WEBSITE
Father Miguel Castellanos
Without success: my interview requests remained a dead letter.
So much for the context, which will shed light on the rest of the column.
On February 22, Isabelle would have been 12 years old.
At 4:20 p.m. that day, Geneviève showed up with her daughters at the gate, on the way to Côte-des-Neiges. The screen doors were closed. Geneviève found it odd: it’s usually open until 5 p.m….
A guard seated in a car got out to meet Genevieve at the door. It’s closed, we don’t admit anyone, there’s a strike, the management has decided to close the cemetery.
“I understand, replied Geneviève, but it’s my deceased daughter’s birthday. It’s really important for us to go and pray at his grave, sir…
– I can not do anything. »
There, Geneviève began to cry.
The guard: “You’re not the only one, all day I had people crying…”
Distraught, Geneviève returned to her car. The guard did the same. She thought for a moment. There was no question of Isabelle being abandoned on the day of her 12e anniversary. She said to Alice and Eléonore: “Here we go, girls. »
Geneviève and her daughters therefore slipped into the space between the fences and the ground, crawling, before starting to walk towards Isabelle’s grave.
The Pinkertons of the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery have come out of their torpor – finally some action! – and two cars (two!) chased the bad offenders by driving behind them at low speed…
A cemetery guard, from his tank window, began to shower Geneviève with reproaches: “It’s horrible, what you are doing! It’s illegal ! There will be serious consequences! »
And: “It’s dangerous!” »
There, Geneviève forgot that she was shaking: “Dangerous? How ? For what ? »
But the cerberus of the place repeated, like a robot: “It’s dangerous, it’s dangerous!” »
Geneviève replied: “I’ve been coming for years, I’ve never been in danger and… I almost never see guards! »
The guards began to call for reinforcements, refusing to let them go, while telling Geneviève that she was putting her daughters in danger.
Eléonore and Alice have just begun to be frightened by being told that their mother was putting them in danger…
Geneviève has decided to turn back.
And for the first time since October 9, 2014, Isabelle did not have a visitor on her birthday.
I would add that Geneviève and the father of her children, Marc, are no longer together. The father goes to the cemetery, too, and it is not uncommon for him to come up against closed doors, labor dispute or not.
I will be told that the rules are the rules.
Of course.
But I understand a thousand times more this mother who wants to greet her daughter than the bosses of the Factory of the parish of Notre-Dame who have transformed the cemetery into a small Guantánamo, punishing the bereaved families.
For the priest Miguel Castellanos, big boss of the Factory of the Notre-Dame parish, question: Is it really necessary to punish the families of the deceased for this labor dispute? What is the great danger that awaits bereaved relatives who want to go and pray at the grave of a loved one who has never been forgotten?
I consulted the site of the cemetery, sir. Referring to the employees’ strike, the text reads: “The Cemetery only welcomes bereaved families who have an appointment for a burial or for a cremation service…”*
In short, Father Castellanos, when clients want to enter the cemetery for a paid service, then we admit them, right?
But if it doesn’t pay, like going to meditate on a grave, then what La Fabrique says to families is very simple: f*** you.
Oh, am I vulgar?
Not as much as this locking up of the dead, my father.
Pssst, Genevieve…
I am sure of two things.
One, I’m thinking of you and your daughters crawling under the fence trying to get to Isabelle’s grave, and, my God, it’s a moving beauty, this gesture, madam. Don’t regret it.
Two, your Isabelle knows you tried everything on February 22. And just because I can’t prove it doesn’t mean it’s not true…
* The Cemetery only welcomes bereaved families who have an appointment for a mausoleum burial or a cremation service. These families are admitted through the main entrance to the Cemetery, on Boulevard de la Côte-des-Neiges. No land burial is possible at this time.