His secret: work

Photo Chantal Poirier

Jacques Laplante

Sunday, 30 July, 2017 08:00

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Sunday, 30 July, 2017 08:00

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From the top of its 106 years, Joacquina Lalande refuses to impose. The only daughter of a family of seven children, she has always been a go-getter who wasn’t afraid of hard work.

This is, according to her, the secret of his longevity. “Work, sir !” exclaimed she when you ask him the question. Me, I’ve worked all my life and it is this that kept me healthy, ” she said. No alcohol, no tobacco, no red meat for the past 40 years, and the work, it does not lie. “

Woman action good for business, she opened a grocery store in an annex of his house in Saint-Jérôme, when her husband became seriously ill in 1945. She had to meet the needs of her four children, Charles-Aime, Gilles, Jocelyne and Marc-André.

8 h to 23 h

“My mother worked very hard,” says his son, Charles-Aimé Lalande, now 79 years old. Mom was working in the trade every day, from 8 h to 23 h, while in the care of children and of dad, until he died in 1959. “

In addition to the grocery store, Ms. Lalande has opened a restaurant with a jukebox and a machine with balls that thrived in many of the young people in the area. Its trade was also known for his tv, one of the first in the village. The neighbourhood went there to see

The Plouffe family, The Arising or the fight. They were so many that she sit on crates of Coke. The shopping asked for 10 cents at the entrance, but he did take the whole pot after the session.

Ms. Lalande celebrated his 106 years old in June. In addition to leg weakness, hearing and vision are failing, it is in great shape. Even more amazing : she takes no medication. “Except, very occasionally, a Tylenol,” says the youngest son, Marc-André Lalande, aged 73 years. My mother is really in shape. She has even made a chum. A little young for 95 years ! ” lance-t-il.

► The secret: the working