Above is a picture of the Ottawa Civic Hospital where Sue's cousin Marcel Legare worked in the kitchen. The hospital is on Carling Ave at the intersection of Parkdale Ave in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Above is a picture of Sue's cousin Marcel Legare and his girlfriend Bonnie who later become his wife. This picture was taken in the mid 1970s.
Above is a picture of Sue with her cousin Marcel Legare's children. His daughter was 3 years old and his baby boy was born after his death. The baby boy was 4 months old. This picture was taken in 1982 in Ottawa at Bonnie Legare's apartment.Marcel Legare, Sue's cousin commits suicide at the Champlain Bridge in Ottawa in the fall of 1981 in Ottawa
Sue had a cousin named Marcel Legare. Shortly before his death, he called up Sue and told she was his favorite cousin. Sue liked Marcel because he had a gentle nature. Sue lost touch with Marcel for a number of years as his father Gerald "Gerry" Legare, Sue's father's brother had a reputation for not paying the rent nor his bills and moved from town to town all the time to escape his debtors.
Gerry would hold odd jobs but never really had a permanent job. Gerry was married to Theresa.
Theresa's mom Blanche married Gerry's dad Albert Legare, a little confusing isn't it?
I remember my parents speaking about Marcel and that an awful accident happened to him at home one day. Marcel sat on the stove and the stove was red hot and he got badly burned. He spent some time in hospital. His legs were burned and his back side but not his face and his arms. Marcel, my cousin had the nicest smile, it could light up a room. He was very special.
Sue remembers visiting Gerry and Theresa and their four kids. Diane was married and had a baby.
Louise, Marcel and Michael lived in Whitby, Ontario and Diane did not live too far away. It was a rural area. Uncle Gerry has oil paintings he has completed all over the house. He painted replicas of famous paintings, he was good but not outstanding, just average you could say. He gave two of his small oil paintings to Sue's dad Paul Andre who was his brother. Aunt Theresa had gained lots of weight and looked very stressed. Theresa kept pulling out her hair and she talked non stop.
The house was small. I met a boy named Joe Brown there in Whitby. I had a big crush on him.
It was the late 60s and I just changed my name from Suzanne to "Sue". Little did I realize that the country singer Johnny Cash had written a song called "A boy named Sue" Well my cousins and their friends made sure I would never live that down. They mocked for a long time over that. I can laugh about that now.
Louise said her boyfriend was involved with one of the motorcycle groups in the Whitby area. I had
no idea what motorcycle gangs did because I was that naive. Louise was very shapely and pretty and lots of boys like her. She was some good looking you could say. My cousin Marcel was handsome.
He had a ready made smile and I liked his laugh. He had lots of curly hair.
Gerry had his whole family live in a small camper car the type of camper you use to go camping.
His camper was his home and it was pretty small to say the least. I could not understand that.
I did not realized my uncle was poor and that is all he had. Gerry was unstable and could not keep
a job at all for very long. One time Gerry showed up with his family and the camper at 66 Calais Street in Touraine.
There were rumours that Gerry was molesting Louise. Louise never told us anything but her step grandmother Blanche was told. Louise eventually left home at 14 years old and got permission from Blanche to get married at 15 years old and she did. She married a nice guy who was her boyfriend. She lives out West now and her kids that are all grown up.
I have not seen Louise Legare since 1971. Diane used to work in reception at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. She was married three times and is remarried now and is a grandmother. Michael was adopted when aunt Theresa was in the Brockville Psychiatric the same time Sue was in 1973. Uncle Gerry gave up son for adoption. This made Aunt Theresa very upset and depressed. Aunt Theresa divorced Uncle Gerry and then married her boyfriend who she met at the psychiatric hospital named Joe. Aunt Theresa became disabled and had to use a walker and then went into a retirement home in Ottawa. Uncle Joe died. Joe was illerate. Aunt Theresa used to help her husband.
Marcel married Bonnie. I saw him and Bonnie the last time at Diane's apartment in Ottawa in the late 70s. We had a nice time. Bonnie and Marcel were engaged then. Bonnie and Marcel got married.
They had a little girl and they lived in a townhouse in Kanata. Marcel worked in the kitchen at
the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Bonnie and Marcel fought and then Bonnie left him for awhile. Bonnie was pregnant with their second child.
Bonnie works as a hospital clerk at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Marcel quit his job at the hospital and then bought into a franchise photo lab. The franchise did not pan out and he gave it up. Marcel tried to get his job back at the hospital to no avail. Marcel became depressed and was admitted to the Royal Ottawa Hospital on Carling Ave, a few blocks from the hospital he had worked at. One night Marcel escaped from the locked psychiatric ward and got into his car that was parked in the parking lot and head for the Champlain Bridge. A witness said they saw Marcel stop his car on the bridge and run down to the rapids and kept walking until they could not see him anymore. Marcel committed suicide. A few days later they found Marcel's body floating in the water.
I was at the Ottawa- Queensway Hospital Psychiatric ward when Marcel died and my family did not tell me. I found out when I went to visit my mom in Vanier and saw the death notice on the bulletin board. I asked my mom why no one told me Marcel had died, and she told me they did not want to upset me because I was in the hospital. I was angry because I would have wanted to go to Marcel's funeral. My dad told everyone that he bought flowers and they did not show up. I think my dad never bought any flowers for his nephew and said he did. My dad is a miser. He spends lots of money on himself though. In 1987 he paid $2,000 for a canoe trip up to Northern Canada for two weeks. I had asked me dad for some money to pay for clothes as I was on Welfare and he did not help me out.
It was a hot summer and I had no summer dresses. I was obese and I could not find clothes my size
at the thrift shop.
Gerry died a few years later in Vancouver. Gerry married a black girl. Gerry had heart trouble.
My father was upset and I spoke to my dad on the phone. His brother Gerry had molested both his
daughters Diane and Louise. Dad never went to the funeral in Vancouver. He had the money to go but didn't go. I don't think my father tried to help his brother financially at all during his lifetime and my dad had to money to do so.
I invited Theresa and her new husband to meet Fred when we lived in a townhouse on Woodridge Cres near Bayshore shopping center in Ottawa I liked my aunt Theresa a lot. She was a kind person.
Joe was a quiet and a happy man.
Gerry lived in a house in Ottawa before my aunt landed up in the psychiatric ward at Brockville.
Gerry had women coming over and taking naked pictures of them. Louise and her boyfriend took me for a walk. Her boyfriend took out a pill bottle full of pills and asked me if I wanted any. I was naive and didn't know exactly what those pills were and I just said no. I saw Louise in her bedroom sniffing her nail polish and I was shocked. Never knew people did that.
Louise was a shapely young girl with a big teeth and beautiful hair. She was always nice to me.
Gerry lived in Vanier across from the Friend's Bingo in a second floor apartment. Gerry and his
family always ate french fries. Gerry moved his family to Toronto. Our family visited them in
Toronto. I remember the street cars. Ottawa used to have street cars but I was too young to remember them. My mom told she took me on the street cars when I was a baby in 1955.
Gerry had a funny sense of humour. Dad is good with his money and Gerry was not. Dad was stable in his employment and did well and got promoted to be a chief of a Translation Department. Gerry
only had odd jobs throughout his life. Dad was very intelligent in some things and was an intellectual and Gerry was not.
Gerry saw very little of his sister Carmen who lived in Gatineau pointe and was married to Robert.
Carmen had three girls. The girls are all grown up now and have families of their own. Carmen remarried a businessman.
Gerry rarely saw his dad Albert. One day when I was a teenager, my dad looked over to me and said "Suzanne, you are a shizophrenic like your uncle Gerry. I did not know what a schizophrenic was. I asked my dad what a schizophrenic was and my dad never answered me . My dad was emotionally abusive to towards me, and sometimes he physically abused me as well.
My dad never gave me any affection. He was very cold and uncommunicative towards me. He basically ignored me. I would talk to him and he would just walk away not caring about what I had to say. I felt neglected and hurt. All I ever wanted was a hug from my dad and I never got that
unless I hugged him first but he was always cold towards me. My father's indifference towards me
caused me to have emotional problems and some of that was towards men. My father was not a good role model for a dad or for a man. I got very confused as to how to relate to men after I left home.
I always kept going out with older men probably looking for a father figure, someone to late to,
to get the affection I never got from my father, that is what I theorize.
