Jeffrie Dominique Aucoin

Biography:

Dominique Aucoin: born Aug. 4, 1915 & died April 17, 1990 (age 74) I’m Georgina Aucoin and am writing what I remember about Dominique (my uncle), as well as what my siblings remember. Dominique has lived with us (in Irenee’s house, later given to his son Jeffrey) for his entire lifetime. This means I’ve known Dominique for 42 years (i.e. the first 16 years of my life when I lived at home and the following 26 years when I lived away from home but visited regularly for vacations). Dominique was only 6 years old when his father Georges died. He had 3 other siblings (Marie Rose [born in 1910], Joseph [born in 1911] & Marcellin (my father) [born in 1913]). His uncle Jeffrey looked after them all, after my grandfather’s death, alone at first and then with his wife after 1925. When I was born in 1948, his wife was not living. Dominique and Marie Rose were mentally challenged. When Jeffrey died in 1955, dad took over the task of looking after Dominique and Marie Rose. By this time, dad was married and my mother with living with him in Jeffrey’s house. Things we remember about Dominique include the following: Dominique never had a paying job. He never had much schooling and had very bad eyesight. He also took seizures (convulsions) every so often. Dominique spent time on delivery trucks (with Wifred Aucoin & Luc LeFort), helping the driver load and unload supplies. He would be rewarded with meals and beer.In the later years, Dominique had a disability pension from the provincial government. I remember dad working with the family doctor to get him to qualify for that pension. Dominique was a kind and pleasant person and most people liked him and looked out for him. Dominique was intelligent when it came to trying to get a beer. One time, he asked Marcel (my brother) for a few dollars to get some beer. Marcel told him he only had a $5 bill. He said “that’s okay, I can give you change”. We have a lot of funny stories about Dominique, especially now that he is gone. Whenever we get together as a family, his name always comes up, like “remember the time Marcel stored beer under his bed as a place to hide it and Dominque drank it all and put the caps back on the bottles?” Dominique loved kids. When Christine was young (Marcel’s daughter who lived close by), he bought her a bicycle with his disability cheque.Dominique had a good sense of humor. He drove a bicycle and on the sidewalk and used his bell to get people to move out of the way. Dominque was always ready to run errands for all of us, like picking up groceries. Dominique rarely drank at home. He had a drinking buddy (Willie) and we drove him to Willie’s place every Saturday night. He would stay there overnight. The children got a great kick out of Dominque, like on Christmas night when he would sing to the top of his lungs, with Marcel playing the guitar. Dominique had cancer for about 10 years before he died. Albert (my brother) brought him to Halifax for treatments. He spent his last year in the nursing home, as there was nobody at home to look after him. Mom was already in the nursing home by that time. He was a good patient and loved the nursing home, with all the attention he was getting. Dominique never got along with Marie Rose (his sister who was also mentally challenged). They were hardly civil to each other. It was hard for us to understand that, as we were growing up. I remember coming home for vacation one summer and staying with them for a week while mom and dad took a break. They didn’t want to leave the two of them alone. Dominique was a devout Catholic, would never miss mass, vespers or whatever was going on in churc