Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

SATURDAYS WITH ANTOINETTE Part II
Benoit's Story
by Louise Dubrule

During our Saturday conversations, it has become clear that Antoinette is a repository for family history, with a facile mind and memory for details and dates. In talking about her husband, his story became as vivid as her own as she related the facts which I am honored to set down in her words.

Benoit Lafreniere was born December 17, 1915 in St. Wenceslas, Quebec, the last of seven children born to a farmer and his wife. Benoit’s mother suffered a severe stroke when she was close to term with him, and she was able to deliver a healthy child. However, she was never again able to walk or talk, and Benoit was truly raised by his older sisters. His mother died when Benoit was four years old.

Through a visitor, Mr. Lafreniere heard about the opportunities in the United States, particularly in Claremont, New Hampshire. At this time, Claremont was home to three shoe factories, a paper mill, a woolen mill, and several other manufacturing concerns. The two oldest children were married by now, and there were still four girls and four-year old Benoit left at home. Upon investigating, Mr. Lafreniere discovered that, indeed, life could be better for him and his children. He arranged his affairs to sell the farm and they moved to Claremont where he got employment at the big paper mill.

One of Benoit’s sisters became my good friend, and life went on until Mr. Lafreniere received word that the new owner of his farm could no longer make payments on it. He was forced to pack up Benoit, now ten years old, and go back to take over his land again. Ten years went by, with the family separated like this.

One fine day, two of Benoit’s married sisters went to visit the homestead accompanied by their husbands and children. They worked to persuade Mr. Lafreniere to allow Benoit to come back to New Hampshire with them for a vacation. He was reluctant, fearing that Benoit would meet a girl who would turn his head; he was determined that Benoit marry a good Canadian woman.

At last, it was agreed that Benoit could come for a short visit, and there were ten of them in the car as they approached the border. The agent asked if they were citizens, and the husbands replied “All citizens” without thinking...and Benoit came into the United States without benefit of paperwork.

Benoit arrived in Claremont on October 12, 1936, and we were introduced on the 13th when I ran into him and his sister in a store. They came to spend pleasant evenings at my home, and Benoit and I had our first date to attend midnight Mass at Christmas. What a lovely beginning! Benoit obtained work at one of the three shoe factories in Claremont, and two years later we were married and moved in with my parents for a few months.

Citizenship had never come up, not even when the Social Security program went into effect. Benoit, along with all the other employees of factory, simply received his enrollment papers and paid into the system. Suddenly, one day an official in uniform appeared at the door, asking to speak to Benoit. When he was informed that Benoit was at work, he arranged to return that evening and he did come back. From seven to eleven that night, Benoit and the officer were in our bedroom behind the closed door while Benoit answered a lot of questions about his arrival into the United States. Had he sneaked across? Had he traveled by night? Did he hide in the woods? Benoit laid out the facts as clearly as he could.

When the agent finally left, he advised Benoit to stay on this side of the border until everything was settled. It took three years for the paperwork to be filed, with letters and forms going from Claremont, New Hampshire, to Washington, D.C., to Canada, and then back again. At last, everything was cleared for Benoit to be a citizen, and we were free to go visit family in Canada again.

Sad to say, Mr. Lafreniere never really made peace with the fact that Benoit had married an American after all, but I hope he took comfort in the fact that I was a good wife and mother, and we had a good life together.

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