Precious wood like life

A slice of tree trunk, pierced with the design of a leafy tree, adorns the living room of Elyse Laporte and André Cormier. They carved this work in the maple that killed their daughter Laurie-Ève ​​10 years ago. It is their “precious wood”.

The sun crosses this sculpture to recall the luminous presence of their child, who lost his life in a violent windstorm in Boucherville in July 2013.

That day, Laurie-Ève ​​was working as a lifeguard in a municipal swimming pool when she perished, crushed by a heavy tree branch. She had just sheltered a group of young bathers from the wind.

“She went back outside the locker room to pick up a wife and a last child. That’s when the branch fell on her. The firefighters found the child, seriously injured but alive, under his body, ”says his mother.

Her death sent shock waves from Boucherville to Australia, where she had obtained her certification as an ocean lifeguard at the age of 17. From around the world, from Rescue Australia to the World Scout Organization, messages of sympathy poured in. All those who had crossed paths with the young woman, at school and abroad, hailed her ardor and her unifying power.

Her mother has long sought unsuccessfully to harness her daughter’s ardor.

“Today, I’m glad she stood up to me. She traveled, she lived as she wanted. I’m happy about it,” she says.

Healing through art

Despite all the benevolent gestures and testimonies, mourning nevertheless remains a difficult ordeal to go through, recognizes the couple. Sorrow and rage gnawed at her daily life for years.

“There was no culprit to vent his anger on. There is nothing more intangible than the wind! “, underlines M.^me Laporte, a retired preschool teacher who eventually found solace in art therapy. Her appeasement convinced her spouse to explore this cathartic path in turn.

“I’ve always liked working with wood, but it was more for carpentry. I signed up for a sculpture course, just to try, says André Cormier. I liked it so much that it became my therapy. »

It was then that the stars aligned, continues M^me The door. “When we learned that the big silver maple that killed Laurie-Ève ​​had to be cut down, we asked the City for permission to recover all the wood. We cut it into logs and planks to bring it home. »

All this “precious wood”, as the couple calls it, is carefully preserved in the workshop. André Cormier draws from it the material necessary to create works, but also useful everyday objects such as a sideboard, bowls or even coat racks. Simply to remind you of Laurie-Ève’s presence in everyday life.

raw beauty

Like his daughter, André Cormier’s works preserve the perfect imperfections of wood. Part of the knots, disease spots and wounds in its bark are retained to respect the tree’s past.

“Life is still in the wood,” said his wife, stroking a small varnished bowl, adorned with marks left by insects.

“I let the wood express itself”, says the sculptor and former educator with simplicity. “I have an idea of ​​what I want to do, but I’ll let the wood tell me what it wants to be. And at the same time, it reminds me of the nature of Laurie-Ève. It got me out of it. »

These works of precious wood are offered sparingly to significant people around them. “People are shaken every time. But I take care to explain to them that, to keep Laurie-Ève ​​alive, my way is to talk about it openly. We never wanted his death to be a taboo subject, ”underlines the father, his eyes a little red.

Little by little, the precious wood of Laurie-Ève’s parents travels and finds its place. A piece sculpted by his father will thus be integrated into an upcoming work by ceramic artist Ève-Marie Laliberté, a cousin of his mother. The creation will be exhibited in the summer at the Haut-Richelieu Museum, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

Another slice of the tree trunk, which frames the photo of the lifeguard, hangs at the entrance to the new aquatic complex in Boucherville, called Laurie-Ève ​​Cormier.

Over time, mother and father made peace with Aeolus, who now symbolizes their daughter’s passionate temper. “When a gust of wind opens the door, we exclaim: ‘There you are at last! Where have you been?” “, they say, laughing.