Her Roots Run Deep

When I was seven, my Dad’s, Dad, Pépère passed away from colon cancer. 

This loss was tragic for many reasons. Our family lost a wonderfully kind and intelligent person from a terrible disease at a young age and the community lost their Renaissance man. Pépère had many gifts left to share with the world and with his family. Gifts, that until recently, I didn’t know too much about.

Pépère, my brother, Stefan, and I, working on one of our grandfather’s famous train sets that he’d set up for us whenever we were in town.

Pépère was a remarkable man. Not only did he break the mold of his town of less than 100 people, but he broke the mold for many in his profession at that time. 

You see, the largely french speaking Acadian community in St. Joseph de Moine, Nova Scotia, where he was from, were fisherman and lived a modest life close to home. But Pépère had a bright spirit and a keen interest for learning which he channeled into becoming a Teacher. A profession he left briefly to serve in the War from 1943 to 1946, to later return to his passion, after graduating from St. Francis Xavier University in 1948. From here, he’d complete his Masters in Education from Columbia University.

But he didn’t stop there. He was granted a prestigious Fellowship to complete his Doctor of Philosophy in Education from London University in the United Kingdom. His research in bilingualism and the teaching of second languages took him to most countries in Europe. A truly remarkable accomplishment for this small town boy, who never ceased to apply himself. This was also reflected in his volunteer work where he held important posts in the cooperative movement in Nova Scotia, which would later take him to Laos.

Announcement in the local paper in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, about Pépère’s move to work in Laos.

In 1963, Dr. Remi Chiasson was released from his teaching duties at St. F.X. to serve as an advisor to the Laos government to support the re-integration of war veterans. His goal was to help design a model to address occupational and employment opportunities for returning vets through cooperatives. A sustainable and holistic model to support economic and social empowerment. The exact same model that I just leveraged to write a proposal for Global Affairs Canada to support rural female farmers in Tanzania. Not knowing until after speaking with my Dad that Pépère had not only played a key role in building the movement in Eastern Canada but he had also extended his expertise to the Global South. 

I was following in his footsteps. 

My knowledge and understanding of development runs deeper than I ever imagined. Perhaps all along the pull I felt to this line of work was bigger than my own experience. 

You know when you get asked that question, “if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?”. You can probably guess who I’d say.

I’m sad that I will never have the opportunity to talk to my grandfather about his work and legacy. To workshop project ideas and proposals with him. To share with him how I'm walking in his footsteps and to maybe even go further than he could have ever dreamed possible. 

There’s moments in this line of work when I feel uncertain and lost, as with many young professionals in their field but the magnitude of the harm both intentional and unintentional in development creates an additional layer of complexity and emotion. 

What I'm learning though is, “when the roots are deep there is no reason to fear the wind”.

I feel you. I see you work. And I thank you for going before me and sparking the sense of curiosity, adventure, and passion for learning that I now carry forward. 

You are missed but never forgotten. 

And so I'll imagine what we would have talked about. I’ll imagine what advice you would have provided. And like you, I'll continue to create educational and economical opportunities for those hardest to reach. And I’ll keep our roots in international development growing strong. 

Avec tout mon coeur. Merci, Pépère. Ton petite-fille,

Émilie