Portrait of a Volunteer – Sister Claire Laplante snjm
Claire Laplante is of the original generation of volunteers invited by Bishop Hubert, of the Diocese St Jean-Longueuil, some fifteen years ago. Since then, once a month, she shows up regularly, generally on a Saturday, to give her time to C.A.S.A. (a Center for transient young adolescents) We won’t tell her age but she was nearly seventy when the Center opened.
Discrete, elegant, alert and vibrant, Claire is one of several Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary who are regular volunteers.
She is always available to those who may need a confidante, or a ping-pong partner. She may just as easily sit at the piano or be of service in the kitchen.
Claire was born in Valleyfield and is one of eight children. As an adolescent, she decided to become a religious. At that time she had the great desire to help those in need and to go to the four corners of the world! However, she stayed in Quebec where she spent thirty-five years as a music teacher and then as an archivist, a profession she is still practicing after twenty-five years.
Archivists often find themselves among dusty books, but research has led her to other Canadian Provinces, and to some of the American States. She has also been fortunate to go to Marseille, France, where, between gourmet meals, she examined the archives of the “Soeurs des Saints Noms de Jesus et de Marie” whose Congregation has since disappeared. One of her best experiences however, was a trip to Rome where she had the privilege of spending a week in the secret Vatican archives . . . surely a dream of every archivist to dip into the historical documents.
Claire keeps abreast of the new trends and now classifies and transcribes onto the computer, for future generations. She has just completed a compilation of 7 000 names of the Sisters of her Congregation.
It is in a soft, gentle voice that she recounts her numerous adventures and memories. She has her own colourful way of sharing her experiences as when she tells of her trip to Marseilles. It would seem that the wind was so strong that she had to put pebbles into her pockets so as to not be blown away. We almost had a “flying nun” at C.A.S.A. . . .
(adapted translation taken from “Sans abri mais pas sans coeur” by Roland Haf)