Thursday, November 28th, 2024. 9:17 PM.
Lowly . . .
Dear Andree, How are you on this thanksgiving day of November 28th, 2024 ?
Two weeks ago, I took a wonderful walk into East Woonsocket. I went to Morin Heights by way of Henry Street off Elm Street. And at the very end of Henry Street walked up a short wilderness to the back parking lot of Woonsocket Health Center where you worked during the summer of the time you were studying at Westminster Theological Seminary in the late 1970s. I remembered you telling me about watching the Phil Donohue Show during your breaks there. And also remembered that my Uncle Bob Richer and his wife Aunt Gloria lived there at the ending of their lives on earth. My Uncle Bob is my dad’s oldest brother — the first of 8 children of Donat Richer and Lucia Roy Richer. My Aunt Gloria spent her childhood at Mount Saint Francis Orphanage in Woonsocket. They had seven children — just as my dad and mom had 7 children. It was a wonderful experience for me to suddenly “go” from Morin Heights into East Woonsocket. After walking down Poplar Street I came to the very end of Nursery Avenue. There is a beautiful ranch-style house there. I stopped and looked at it and saw the beautiful tree-lined driveway on the left of the property and its green lawn and the evergreen trees on the right-side of the front of this home. Later, I walked by the house where a classmate from Woonsocket High school, Dorothy Richer and her younger sister, Delores, lived. Then I walked up Campeau to Lafrancois Blvd until I came to Papineau Avenue where I had moved into my first apartment on, I think it was July 19th, 1971. 162 Papineau Avenue. I walked down the street all the way to its dead end. There were countless acorns on the ground at the end of the street. I picked up one of them that still had its “roof” over its head; but the “roof” fell off as I touched it; nevertheless, I took both pieces and put them in my coat pocket as a keepsake. I met a few people on Papineau Avenue. Just as I rounded the corner of Lafrancois and Papineau, a man was walking from his parked pick-up truck toward the house there at the corner. I said Hi to him and mentioned that The Sutherlands had lived there many years ago. I told him my name and that it was my birthday. He wished me a happy birthday. I told him I had lived at 162 Papineau Avenue for 13 years — from when I was 19 until 32 — my first apartment. I stopped just as I reached Mrs. Camilucci’s former house and looked at it. It was in very good condition. I remembered her and her son Kenny and his sister Louise and my landlady’s second husband Dan DeMeo; and the Joly family next to their property; and the Joyal family across the street; and the Ouelette family next house after the Camilucci’s. Later, I walked by your home on Mendon Road and stopped and looked at it — noticing some changes from how it had looked in the 1970s. The Barrette’s house is gone now. Looked across the street where The Reynolds house had been. Noticed the elementary school near there; and the Scobey’s house way up Theresa Avenue at the bend in the corner where that street goes to Elder Ballou Road. Steven Scobey had been in my class at St. Charles School for 8 years. His older sister, Linda, had been in my sister Lesley’s class for 9 years at St. Charles School in the late 1950s to about 1965-or ’66. Then I reached Chipman’s Corner where St. Joseph Church and School are located — where you went to school — and, I suppose, your sister, Lise and brother, Marc, also went there. Then I walked down Cass Avenue, noticing Loring Street where my mother was born at 112 Loring Street in 1930. It’s a dead-end street — just as Papineau Avenue is — and Reed [Read] Avenue is — where my dad’s family lived in Woonsocket — off Elm Street. Then I reached Cumberland Street and walked by St. Ann’s former church building — and Fournier & Fournier’s funeral home. And then on Clinton Street where Mailloux’s Furniture Store had been for many years in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Andree, I’m 73 now — and you will be, too — in about 32 days. Wishing you a happy birthday, Andree — and a happy Thanksgiving Day, today. Thank you so much, Andree for writing to me in early 1978 about the gospel; and for your hospitality at Westminster Theological Seminary in early April 1978 where I was born again in that field between the Seminary and Beaver College as we stopped there to pray — as we were walking after your classes on that beautiful, sunny afternoon in early Spring 1978.
Mark David Richer
November 28th, 2024. 4:54 AM.
In Christ’s love to you, Andree . . .
God bless you and all your family in Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
Mark's Imaginings 