By Sharon McCully
It is with sadness and a profound sense of loss the community has learned of the passing of Claudia Villemaire, at the age of 85, Monday, Sept. 23 at the Wales Home.
Well known throughout the Townships as The Record’s agricultural reporter, Claudia was considered the resident authority on farm fairs having covered the annual fall tradition for more than 40 years. Her body of work remains an archival record of farming and farm families over several generations in the Eastern Townships.
Already the mother of four when she joined the Record newsroom staff in 1978, Claudia began her time as a reporter covering Sherbrooke courthouse and later became editor of the paper’s Arts & Culture section. But it was as a farm reporter that Claudia found her niche. During her career, she interviewed hundreds of farmers from Bedford to Megantic and came to know more farmers and their families than the UPA. She also mentored dozens of young reporters who got their start at The Record, gently schooling them on farm-to-table practices and the business end of a cow. She was as comfortable chatting with visiting prime ministers as with farm hands, always with an anecdote to share about life in the Townships.
In addition to her work as a reporter, Claudia, a trained classical pianist, was the choir director and organist for St. Bibiane Church, sharing in the most memorable moments for local families providing music for their weddings and funerals. She wrote lovingly of her choir, comprised largely of dedicated seniors this way: “Sometimes they’re on the wrong page or maybe, not the right line of music. Perhaps they begin with a verse when most are already at the refrain. But, if determination and faithful adherence to their church and their choir could be measured in gold, there would be no need for financial campaigns.”
Her colourful writing style, laced with sage advice from a different time, often took readers on rambling rides along country roads, conjuring images of pastoral fields, rolling hills and animals grazing in the sun.
Record readers could not help but smile and reminisce when reading Claudia’s stories sprinkled with words of wisdom like: “Grandma always said a smile is one of the few things that cost nothing to give away and is still ready for the next encounter.”
On Community: “Time was taken to admire a star-filled night sky, a wave and smile to neighbours, a phone call to far-away relatives that spark that old-fashioned feeling of goodwill.”
Technology: “One wonders what we have lost in a world bombarded with the hype and commercialism of shopping online and food delivered to one’s door.”’
A farmer’s life: “There were always chores to do, animals to be fed, stables to be cleaned, cream to be separated; then there was weaving the wool that was clipped from the sheep into blankets.”
Christmas Eve: “There was music. Not on a radio or television, but Christmas
carols with everyone gathered around the piano. If the weather was tolerable, a horse and sleigh with buffalo robes and heated stones, carefully arranged for the journey to the country church three miles away would be prepared. Youngsters would snuggle under the furry wraps, finding a comfortable spot among the warm stones and adults to enjoy a trip that took close to an hour.”
Harvest: “The aromas coming from the cast iron stove in late summer filled the house with pumpkin spice from newly harvested pumpkins along with turnips, apples, squash and yellow-eyed beans,
another winter staple transformed into baked beans with maple syrup, brown sugar and salt pork roasted in a slow oven from late morning ’til supper time.”
Yesteryear: “There was no hydro power, no refrigerators or freezers other than ice sawed from the nearest stream during winter. The oat bin was filled when the thrasher came with his separating machine, and the neighbors arrived with their team pulling the binder ahead of double teams and flat-rack wagons to the grainfield where a crew filled bags of grain.”
When Claudia left The Record in 1990 to join her partner Mike Doyle in Northern Quebec for a work assignment, then Record editor Charles Bury wrote: “Although there may be pale imitations, Claudia will never be replaced.”
Claudia was predeceased by her daughters Mary Elizabeth and Geraldine Samantha and will be deeply missed by her life partner Mike Doyle, her children Sarah and Mark and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She will be remembered fondly by legions of Record readers, alumni and friends throughout the Townships who have had the pleasure to know her.
A graveside service will be held Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. at St. Andrew’s Cemetery for family and friends.
