It was December 8, 1979. A real winter day.
It was freezing cold when Claude Thibault and Madeleine Guertin took the road from Sherbrooke to the Longue-Pointe military base. Objective: to pick up the family of Cambodian refugees that they had agreed to sponsor.
They see themselves again moved and feverish, like young parents preparing to welcome a newborn. In fact, it’s as if they welcomed three at once: little Vath, 4 years old, and his parents Pam Yoth and Tum Hun. Thanks to the sponsorship program just launched by the government of René Lévesque and celebrated these days in the film Ruthe small family fleeing the Cambodian genocide had the right to a second life, a second chance.
Forty-four years later, as little Vath, now grown up, recalls the memories of his first snow with the Thibault family, the emotion is still palpable.
Madeleine sees herself again in the car bringing back the little family, exhausted by their journey to their new home. She watched Pam Yoth, sitting in the back seat, her son on her lap, driving through a winter landscape with strangers whose language he didn’t speak.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE, OLD PHOTOS OF CLAUDE THIBAULT AND MADELEINE GUERTIN
The Thibault family opened their arms to this family who had stayed in a refugee camp in Thailand.
“He held Vath strong, strong in his arms, tight against him throughout the journey,” she said, mimicking his gesture. “Vath, you were little, you didn’t really know what was going on and so he wanted to protect you. »
The scene remained well etched in the memory of the godmother, whom her sponsors still call “Mom”, 44 years later.
I remember that love. All this affection. It was very, very beautiful.
Madeleine Guertin
A universal beauty to be preserved, giving full meaning to the gesture of human solidarity that the Thibault family wanted to make by opening their arms to this family who had stayed in a refugee camp in Thailand.
“You think about it… They didn’t know us at all. They didn’t know where they were going. They knew nothing about our country. That’s what got me involved. I put myself in their place. They must flee their country and leave everything behind. You have to be strong to go into exile, take control of yourself and trust. »
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Claude Thibault and Madeleine Guertin
Madeleine understood later, when Pam Yoth had mastered French well enough and felt confident enough to tell her story, that Vath’s biological mother had been murdered in Cambodia. Tum Hun, whom Vath considers his mother, is Pam Yoth’s second wife, met in a refugee camp. The story of the father’s flight on foot with his orphaned son and his brother-in-law from Cambodia to Thailand deeply shook her.
“Your father said there were antipersonnel mines and he saw his friends set foot in them. He was sometimes forced to eat leaves…” she said to Vath.
“Do you have any memories of that?”
– No. And maybe it’s better that way…”
Vath’s first memories are happy memories in Quebec. He, who had never seen snow, remembers his amazement when leaving the plane. ” This struck me ! »
It is also a lasting memory for his parents. But unlike their 4-year-old boy, they were more in post-traumatic thermal shock than in wonder. Their first thought upon discovering the Quebec winter panorama was to wonder how animals could survive the cold and snow and how humans could live in such a climate.
They quickly found the answer from their sponsors. Their warm welcome warmed the coldest of winters. Under the snowflakes, hope became possible again.