10 years too many

Photo Agence QMI, Marc Desrosiers

Jacques Laplante

Sunday, 30 July, 2017 08:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 30 July, 2017 08:00

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According to Sarah Patenaude, to live well, it takes work, but do not lay claim to. It is necessary to take a vacation, eat fruit and meat and well practice his or her religion, whatever it may be. “Anyway, there is some good in all religions,” she said.

“And take a little bit, it’s nice, but sometimes !” she adds, laughing.

But the smile fades quickly from his lips. Live old does not mean to live a happy life. “One hundred and ten years is a long time, you know, let it fall. A hundred years would be quite enough. Good God I may have forgotten… “

For the past ten years, Ms. Patenaude has health problems. She had to be resuscitated following a cardiac arrest at 99 years old. Two years later, she broke a hip, and since its 109 years, much to his dismay, she cannot take a bath alone.

She now lives in fear of dying in suffering.

Teacher during 47 years

Like many women of her generation, Ms. Patenaude has worked hard all of his life. In his youth, up to age 18, she worked on the family land where she was born in Embrun, Ontario. Then she became a teacher at the age of 18 years at a school of rank.

“Had to be severe, she said. Teach 48 students in a class when you have 18 years of age, it is difficult, especially that they were of different ages… “

In the winter she went to school on snowshoes. “I was following the track of the horses,” recalls one who, besides teaching, was to see to the maintenance of the school and the wood-burning stove.

Ms. Patenaude has taught up to the age of 65 years.

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