Adele Lucy Belhumeur

On behalf of the family- Lisa, Shaelyn, Jessica, Cory, Brayden, and Cheyenne, grandchildren and great grandchildren – I would like to thank each and everyone of you for coming to pay your respects to honour and celebrate the life of Adele Belhumeur – Mother, Auntie, and Memere.

I am  Cindilee, the niece of Auntie Adele and this is my cousin Raymond, nephew to Ma Tante and we will be sharing some memories with you as they were shared with us.  After spending some quiet time with Lisa and Cory, we were gifted these stories amidst a few tears, laughter and plenty of reminiscing.  These are the treasures that we want to share with you.

How do you sum up 91 years of this beautiful woman’s life in just a few pages? Truthfully it is just not possible – but we will try our very best to honour and reverently pay tribute to her    legacy.

Auntie Adele was born on October 8th, 1934 in Birtle, Manitoba.  She attended school at Victor and was even taught by her sister, Helen. Auntie spoke about working in Saskatoon at a  hospital where she learned how to sew, thus developing her lifelong passion for this.  After   returning to St. Lazare, she was married to her lifetime partner, Albert in 1965. Ma Tante later worked as the manager for Manitoba Housing for a while and Lisa remembers the filing cabinets gracing the kitchen area.  Now how’s that for time efficiency – you can cook and file at the same time. She also loved to garden, cook, pick berries, bake and spend time visiting with her friends and    family.  We often talked about how garden produce tasted sooooo much better than store bought and credited God’s water and sunshine for this. So often she told me that she was baking for her granddaughter’s bake sales and just loved doing this.

Her door was always open and you knew that when you stopped by you would be welcomed with a huge hug, which was most likely followed by a meal. “Well you might as well stay for a meal.  You must be hungry.”  Does that sound familiar to anyone? 

She even let Dad store and sell apples and bacon out of the front door of her house.  Lisa talked to me about how the house smelled of apples long after he left.  He would buy truckloads in Saskatoon and come to Lazare to sell them wanting to give all of his friends and families deals.  So not only was Auntie’s house a loving place to stop in, it was also a part-time farmer’s market.

I remember her telling us about the three gardens they had at Victor and how they would load up the trunks of some people’s cars sharing their produce and meat with them.  She came by her huge heart honestly as this is exactly how her parents were.  She was no stranger to hard work either and talked about how all the farm chores had to be done even before she went to school.

Another story she told us was about how her dad would walk up to the Victor train station and would hold the lit lantern to stop the train so he or Memere could get on and go to town for a few groceries.  She also looked forward to the Rawleigh man’s visits.  My how times have changed. 

Ma Tante wrote three family history books and it was very evident in conversations with her that she was a very wise woman. She was intuitive, reflective and loved voraciously and unconditionally.  We are all blessed because her path crossed and   journeyed alongside ours for so long.

When we went for a drive to Victor this fall, she told us how so many children were raised in this house in addition to her siblings. Yes, truly good hearted people. She said Memere was always scared the house would fall through the basement because she thought the hole they dug was too large and then she said to us, “now look at that house – it’s still standing and it’s over 100 years old.”  Later when we went out for dinner I asked her what we could do next to get into trouble and she looked at me without missing a beat and said, “well let’s just walk out without paying the bill.”

Auntie was the last one of that generation and you could always depend on Ma Tante through loss and thickness. She automatically took the role of being there for everyone through any trials they were going through. She was the replacement of all our parents.

I remember her spending a quiet moment with my nephew many years ago after he lost his mother.  She took him into the backyard at Mom and Dad’s where he wrote a letter to his mom and they lit it on fire and placed it in a tin can to send the letter to Heaven.  With childlike wonder he asked her about the planes that might mess up the words as they flew through the smoke and she very softly told him, “Oh my dear, God has a way of stopping the planes so the letter can get to her.”  Yes she was a Godly woman and you felt the presence of holiness when you were with her – can you imagine her glory when she saw the face of Jesus?

We know you all have beautiful memories and heartfelt stories to share and encourage you to      reminisce with one another as we gather in fellowship over food.  Love a little, laugh a little, and cry a little – tears are good medicine.  Take time to listen to one another’s stories as you tuck them safely away in your heart.  Family is truly our greatest treasure.

She was predeceased by her sons: Trevor, Sterling, and Darren, her grandson A.J., her parents –  Veronica and Alexander, and her siblings – May, Amable, Eileen, Helen, Ernest, and Rita, and Albert - her husband of 57 years.

She is survived by her children: Cory and Lisa, and her grandchildren – Jessica, Shaelyn, Brayden, Cheyenne, and great grandchildren – Colton, Ryland, Rowan, and Hadley.