Time for a concert | The Press

“Are you sure you’re not too tired to attend a concert?” »

My little mom said “no, no, it’s okay” while glaring at me.

Free translation: “Yes, and then? Don’t be a mother hen! »

The radiation oncologist had warned her. The peak of fatigue after radiotherapy was likely to occur approximately two weeks after the end of the treatments. Exactly the same day as the concert at Cégep de Saint-Laurent marking the fifth anniversary of MusiquEntraide, a program she co-founded with Jo-Anne Fraser, one of her former students who was looking for a way to bring music into life Syrian refugee children.

So to hell with fatigue. She absolutely had to be present at this concert, as she had insisted on being there when Jo-Anne, at 16, had invited her to attend her piano recital.

If this story means anything to you, it’s that it started right here, five years ago, in a summer column where I recounted the reunion after four decades of my mother, a retired high school teacher, and ‘a former student, who in turn became a music teacher^⁠1.

It all started with a simple email from Jo-Anne Fraser, who wanted to find her fourth grade math teacher, a key figure in her adolescence, to say thank you.

“If Amal is your mother, can you send this letter to her?” »

I played the role of messenger, as I often do when my mother’s former students write to me. Over time, I realized that she had a whole fan club that I didn’t know existed.

That’s how my mother and Jo-Anne found themselves in a café. They started chatting as if they had never left each other. Forty years had passed, but the special bond that united them was intact.

That day, Jo-Anne, who was at the time program coordinator in the music department of Cégep de Saint-Laurent, spoke to my mother about the project she had in mind for quite a while already: offering music to Syrian refugee children. My mother, who left her native Aleppo in 1967 and volunteers with Entraide Bois-de-Boulogne – a Montreal community organization that helps Syrian families who have had to flee the horrors of war – , proposed to make it their joint project. His exceptional commitment earned him the National Assembly Medal on 1^er last June, during the gala of the 60^e anniversary of Entraide Bois-de-Boulogne.

Jo-Anne didn’t really imagine such a beautiful follow-up to the simple thank you letter she wanted to send to her favorite teacher.

” Truly not ! Life is incredible sometimes! The stars were truly aligned. »

At the end of my column of July 6, 2019, I wrote a few lines about the project they imagined together and the launch of a campaign to collect musical instruments. On the day of publication, Jo-Anne was on vacation, on her way to Gaspésie. Between Montreal and Gaspé, his mailbox was filled with emails from readers who wanted to donate musical instruments. When she glanced at her phone at the end of the day, she was stunned. A whole orchestra was waiting for him!

The MusiquEntraide project was born in record time thanks to a small, dedicated team and generous donors. In the fall of 2019, the project took off. Some 40 children aged 5 to 16 from Entraide Bois-de-Boulogne began taking music lessons given by a dozen student-teachers from the music department of Cégep de Saint-Laurent^⁠2.

At the concert marking MusiquEntraide’s fifth anniversary last April, a very moved Jo-Anne spoke to the parents of the young students of Syrian origin who were able to benefit from this program.

“I believed that, when you arrived in Quebec, offering music to your children could really help them heal from the trauma of war. I didn’t experience the war. But I experienced a family situation where music was a great savior for me. And that’s why I said to myself that it would help the children. »

Five years later, while the project in its current form is finished and we are thinking about a way to allow the young talents discovered along the way to continue their music lessons, Jo-Anne can say mission accomplished.

To the student teachers at the Saint-Laurent CEGEP, Jo-Anne told how her math teacher gave her the teaching bug, even though the student she was didn’t exactly have a knack for math.

“I hated math!” But I loved math that year! I had a superb teacher who was someone who had an impact on me in my journey as a young woman and as a teacher too. It made me want to teach you, dear students, to stay close to young people. »

The teacher also told them how her wonderful reunion with her teacher after more than 40 years had given birth to MusiquEntraide. And how she hoped that through this project, the wheel of education would continue to turn. “I hope you make this your career and be as happy as I am. »

Under the emotional gaze of the former student who had found her teacher, each student-teacher came to present the student they had taken under their wing.

“To see all these young people progressing… There are some I have known from the beginning. They have grown and made so much progress. Also seeing how the students talk about their students… I feel they are so invested in their role. It touched me, this bond of trust that they learned to develop. I was really proud. »

And then, Jo-Anne told me, her voice breaking, what was really touching for her was seeing my mother show up at the concert while she was still recovering and had not been able to attend the previous concerts. .

She had been a role model for her in high school. She was still there today with her resilience and her hope in life and in humanity.

During a concert, there was no longer any war or illness, but a teacher so proud of her student and a student so proud of her teacher. And also a girl who is quite proud of her little mother.

1. Read the column “And I think of you”

2. Read the column “A piano for Christmas”