Home is where the heart is

Hélène Grou was born in the house her father built on Decelles Avenue and has lived there all her life. She's 71 today, her daughter Valerie lives in an apartment upstairs and another daughter, Catherine, lives just a few doors down on the same street. Not surprising they easily say "St. Laurent is home."

Mrs. Grou's earliest memories go back to when there were no traffic lights on Decarie Boulevard, but rather an electric tram line. She can also remember the vast fields in the area beyond Crevier Street that today are home to massive Marcel-Laurin Boulevard. "Our neighbour two doors down had a chicken coop and there were cows walking on Crevier in the '40s," she marvelled.

It was in this period, during World War II, that the 'village' began to develop. Canadair, which specialized in the construction of military aircraft, moved in, and started an influx of new residents moving in. "There were more and more people living in St. Laurent, but we still knew everybody, because we all still had some family ties," she said.

All of a sudden, though, those ties began to weaken, among the youngest of the flock.

According to Valerie Matte, neighbourhood schools allowed St. Laurent students to maintain closeness, despite the swelling population. "Every morning, all the kids left their houses at the same time and walked to school. They came home for lunch and went back to school on foot, and the same thing after school," she said.

That's where St. Laurent's contiguity was cemented, but it was tested with the opening of two new parishes in the '60s.

For Mrs. Grou and her daughters, there isn't the same feeling of ownership that they once felt for their beloved hometown, but not for any of the above reasons. Rather, it was the 2002 merger that made St. Laurent a borough in Montreal.

"We don't really have an identity since the mergers," Hélène Grou lamented. "Me, I still write St. Laurent as my address, not Montreal," Catherine Matte chimed in, and seconded by her sister.

The three women recognize, though, that St. Laurent is still a great place to live. "After I got married, we planned to live here for a year and move," said Valerie Matte. "But in the end we stayed and I'm very glad we did."

For her part Catherine Matte came back to live in her old neighbourhood when she decided to start a family. "When it came time to settle down, I came back, and few people I went to school with did the same thing."

According to them, it's the quality of life that motivates people to come back, adding the cultural diversity of St. Laurent today just adds to its value. "It took some time to get used to, but at the end of the day, we're all richer more having lived together," Hélène Grou said, adding she hopes never to have to leave the place she — and her family — have always called home, which has become a vibrant, bustling sector. "Even if the people have changed, the values haven't."

(Translated by Marc Lalonde)

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