She was smart and tough, as no-nonsense as a prairie winter and just as dependable. Although she recently died, Therese Bourgeois is probably enjoying her eternal rest knowing full well that she raised seven children, raised them as hard as the environment that she grew up in, and raised them right.
Bourgeois was the eldest daughter of Aldoma Labelle and Yvonne Delisle, pioneering people who did much to help St. Albert transition from its early life as a village to its middle life as a town. After her father moved here from Quebec to work in the coal mines, he later became a prominent businessman, establishing the Labelle Boucher butcher shop on the north bank of the Sturgeon and on the east of Perron Street. As a teenager, Therese herself worked in that shop during the war years before she went on to marry Bernard Bourgeois and start her own family.
In time, she would become the grand matriarch of that family with seven of her own children, 16 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. According to her son Guy, no one got out of line under her watch. She kept every single one of them in check, starting from birth. She wouldn’t permit anyone to sit idle while there was work to be done.
“She taught us all to work. We all had to earn our way. That was important. She was as generous as she could be with the resources she had but I think her greatest generosity was really just telling us and showing us that you have to be responsible and be sure to provide so that you can raise a family,” he said.
That work was not only equated to working for a living, but working for life in general. There will always be difficulties in families, he continued, but “Mom set the example. Even the youngest ones could see that things aren’t always rosy but Mom was always positive: ‘Just keep at it and don’t quit and things will work out for you.’”
Indeed, Therese raised those seven children with a stern but loving hand. Times were always tight and tough. She was in her early 40s when things were as tough as they ever were. She faced every challenge head on and with her head up.
“She made sacrifices. She had to sell a piano. She was actually a conservatory-trained musician but in our French family, they liked to play jigs. She wasn’t into jigs. It was funny. She could play Bach!” he laughed.
Therese did try to teach the kids to play as well, but none took up the piano the way that Therese did. Still, the much larger lessons of life were imparted to her children.
It was during this period of financial duress that she ventured into the workforce by establishing herself as one of the first female realtors in the Edmonton area in the 1960s. She worked for a variety of firms before starting her own.
She retired in 1990 but always kept her mind about the people that she came in contact with. There was hardly ever a face or a name that escaped her twice, her mind a steel trap.
After her retirement, she continued to be actively involved in her church, even working as a secretary at the St. Albert Parish and becoming the president of the Catholic Women’s League for a spell. She was astute and dependable above all.
“She was really smart, right to the end.”
Guy said that he always appreciated her businesslike attitude toward things. It helped him to get through the tough time of his own life and to temper the thrill of the good times he had. She was a butcher, and a tough one at that, but never without the sense of love for people, especially her friends, family, and indeed her own children.
In her declining years, she had developed greater and greater trouble with her eyesight and hearing but her spirits never wavered.
She passed away on August 6 at the age of 91. A funeral mass was held at St. Albert Parish last Friday. The family requested that memorial donations be made to the Lung Association, Alzheimer’s Society or the MS Society.
