In 2009, in August, it was the first day of school for Maya Lelièvre and Marie-Josée Longpré.
Marie-Josée experienced her baptism as a teacher-specialist at Sainte-Justine hospital, for the Hospital School Service of the Commission scolaire de Montréal (now the CSSDM).
Maya was 5 years old and it was in her hospital bed in Sainte-Justine that she started kindergarten, thanks to Marie-Josée’s lessons.
Marie-Josée: “Maya spent her first day of school with me in the hospital. She was really excited to start kindergarten. We did the first two days together, it fell on a Thursday and a Friday. The following Monday, when I arrived in her room, Maya was angry and she told me that she didn’t want to see me anymore, she was angry that I didn’t come Saturday and Sunday…”
A huge calendar was therefore made so that Maya knew when her “class” days fell and to avoid the disappointment of not seeing Marie-Josée arrive in her room: “She loved school so much,” remembers Marie-Josée. I was amazed to see her so happy to see me. Despite her treatments, Maya loved school. »
Maya was hospitalized in Sainte-Justine to treat blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia.
It was with Marie-Josée that Maya learned the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet, as well as the numbers… In the middle of chemotherapy treatments, in her hospital room.
But the little one loved learning. Marie-Josée still remembers Maya’s words when she arrived in her room: “What are we learning today? »
It will therefore be 15 years this year since Marie-Josée and Maya experienced their first school year together. They never lost contact. Marie-Josée only taught Maya for a few months, who was just a child when her first teacher taught her the basics of reading and math…
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Since the start of the school year in 2009, Maya and Marie-Josée have never lost contact.
But the special bond that was created between teacher and student never faded. Every year, for her annual follow-up appointments, Maya and her mother Julie came to see Marie-Josée in Sainte-Justine: “And at 14, 15 years old, when I got my first phone,” says Maya, “I started writing to him directly. I am always happy when I see Marie-Josée again. I never forgot her. »
When I tell my friends that I am still friends with my kindergarten teacher, they are always surprised and I answer: It’s a long story !
Maya Lelievre
Marie-Josée, on this unique bond: “Maya was my very first student, a little ray of sunshine in my life as a teacher, she will shine forever in my heart. Thanks to her, my flame as a hospital teacher will never go out. »
I follow Marie-Josée in the corridors of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, heading towards the room of a hospitalized child. She pushes a small cart marked with the words “School at the Hospital” in which we find everything a teacher needs: pencils, notebooks, textbooks, story books.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Marie-Josée Longpré and her cart full of school materials that she pushes through the corridors of the Montreal Children’s Hospital
Marie-Josée reads a tiger story in French, which is not the boy’s mother tongue. The child reads:
“The feline…
—Feline, huh. Do you know what a feline is? »
The teacher explains to the student that cats are in the feline family, like lions and tigers.
The child continues reading:
“It measures in AVERAGE three meters long…
– In average. Do you know what three meters is? »
The child gives up. No, he doesn’t know that.
Marie-Josée then takes out a measuring tape, gives him the end of it before starting to unroll it while moving away from the bed…
“You see, that’s it, three meters!” It’s a big beast! »
The child smiles, he understands:
” Very long !
– Long ! »
It then comes to prey, stripes, zebras, carnivores, buffalo…
This is what the teachers of the Hospital School Service of the Montreal School Service Center do every day with flexibility and creativity, at the Sainte-Justine Hospital, at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, at the Albert-Institut Prévost and the Marie-Enfant Rehabilitation Center: teaching sick children despite illness. Always adapting to them, to make the student grow in the patient.
I meet Maya and Marie-Josée in the teachers’ office at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, in a corridor where there are also the premises of Doctor Clown, music therapy and pet therapy. On the table, photos of the teacher and her former student over the years, during the annual meetings at Sainte-Justine.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Maya Lelièvre is studying nursing and is doing an internship this winter at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
Maya is wearing her trainee nurse outfit. Because at 20, she studied nursing at McGill. And she’s doing an internship this winter at… the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
This means that Maya Lelièvre and her first teacher Marie-Josée Longpré are now, in a way… colleagues!
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The start of the 2009 school year was the beginning of a long friendship between Maya Lelièvre and Marie-Josée Longpré.
“Last January 30,” says Marie-Josée, “we arranged to meet for dinner together. She proudly showed me her work equipment, as well as her uniform. And I proudly presented it to the colleagues I met…”
I ask Maya about her health at 20 years old. Answer: “I’ve been in remission for 15 years. I am alive because my 3 year old brother was a compatible marrow donor. I was able to rebuild my immune system thanks to him…”
Maya pulls up her sleeve, shows me a tattoo on her left arm: 26.11.2009.
This is the date of his spinal cord transplant, a few months after he started school with Marie-Josée: November 26, 2009, the day when remission could be considered.
I ask Maya what she wants to do once she becomes a nurse. And the answer immediately comes, the plan is already mapped out in her head, there is no doubt: “My goal, my dream, is to be a nurse at Sainte-Justine. In oncology. »