Jeanette's Secret

By Craig W.A. Armstrong

The world was at her doorstep! Jeanette Maillet had no reason not to pursue a university degree followed by a career in social neurology, educational tourism, or business as an entrepreneur like her father. Her family, friends, and the eccentric millionaire Ma'am, all encouraged this direction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781626756847

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Chapter 1

Jeanette Maillet was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding of Peter Ashton and Nadine Meikle. Peter encouraged Jeanette to join the debating club in her first year of junior high. Peter was a senior at that time, and all three of them had known each other for the past eight years through their church, Faith Alive Fellowship.

This Saturday, July 19th, 2008 was a milestone for the Faith Alive Fellowship Church in Carleton Place, not far from the nation’s capital, Ottawa. Founded in 2000, the congregation consisted mostly of teenagers and young adults. Peter and his parents Brian and Sharon Ashton, Nadine, Jeanette and her parents, her two brothers and two sisters as well as nearly twenty other teenagers and their families regularly attended the small church, led by Pastor Jim. Nadine’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Meikle were unable to participate in most of the church activities. Mrs. Meikle suffered from severe Mallory-Weiss tear, bleeding in the upper part of the stomach.

This was also to be Pastor Jim’s first wedding, so he was understandably nervous.

Jeanette Maillet was of Acadian ancestry; her grandfather worked his entire life as a fish wholesaler and lobster fisherman, and died in Caraquet, New Brunswick in October 2003 followed four months later by his wife. Her grandparents raised eight children, plus two nieces whose parents were killed in hurricane Edna that hit Atlantic Canada in 1954. Vivid in Jeanette’s memory was her grandmother’s passion to motivate her children and grandchildren to strive for the best. As long as you have done the very best you can, then that’s okay, she would say in a way that if you hadn’t done your best, guilt would force you to try again. Complimenting his business sense was the grandfather’s sense of humor. The story is told of one summer he was demonstrating to tourists how to mend fishing nets. One tourist from Boston was taking notes. When Mr. Maillet asked why he was taking notes the tourist stated I need to mend my volleyball net. Ah, Monsieur I’ve bin fishin’ trente-huit ans, I haven’t caught a volleyball yet.

Jeanette’s dad, Gilles, relocated from the Acadian Peninsula to the Gatineau region of Quebec in 1985. Purchased a large woodlot and harvested wood for the paper industry. In the late 90’s he sold his woodlot to a developer for a substantial profit and moved the family to a small hobby farm with a market garden near Franktown just south of Carleton Place. Following his father’s entrepreneurial spirit, he won a contract with the Ontario Hydro Company, clearing and maintaining new forestry growth under the power lines. He has four year round employees and six summer students. The market garden is a family project which provides spending money for the children and funds for their education.

Her mother, Sally (nee Johnston), was raised in Shawville, Quebec, the daughter of two high school teachers. Risk taking was not part of Sally’s upbringing. The second child of loving parents whose primary motivation was to live within their means and enjoy what good things life had to offer. Her oldest brother joined the public service after college and her younger sister is a ‘stay-at-home’ mom and tends to be more passive like Sally.

Like her father and grandfather before her, the Acadian spirit of survival and entrepreneurship was in Jeanette’s blood. When she talked her dad into planting market garden crops for the cultural tastes of the numerous ethnic groups in and around Ottawa, she was undaunted by her mother’s insistence that she back off. We don’t need that added expense, Sally would say. They won’t travel this far? What then? Jeanette’s idea paid off handsomely, especially amongst the Asian population.

Twenty minutes before the ceremony the wedding party assembled in the church foyer. The talk ranged amongst the girls from Is my hair, okay? to Can someone fix my eye shadow? Looking into the foyer mirror Jeanette thought, "Hmm, I’m no raving beauty, but I’m not ugly. I have a reasonably good figure and pleasant face for a girl almost eighteen. Grand-mère Maillet serait fière, si elle était ici." (Grandmother Maillet would be proud, if she were here)

The boys remained conspicuously silent. Jeanette whispered to one little guy, the ring bearer, Your front window’s open. He shot back with a twisted look that said "I don’t know what you’re talking about. She pointed to his open fly with part of his shirttail hanging out. Taking him aside she zippered it up, straightened his tie and gave his hair a quick brush. He responded with a smile that only a five year old can deliver. Hold on tight to the ring," she cautioned with a smile back.

The wedding ceremony went off without a hitch. Peter was a tall handsome young man in his early twenties with an engaging smile. Jeanette once told him he reminded her of a naval lieutenant she once saw while on a visit to Caraquet. He was smartly dressed in his blue naval uniform, highly shined black shoes and crisp white shirt. I was only thirteen and he was my first crush. Today, Peter wore his navy blue pilot’s uniform. Nadine was dressed equally beautiful in a full-length white dress designed by Bella’s Brides of Toronto. She had been Jeanette’s friend for nearly eight years. Today the look of peace and contentment on her face made Jeanette secretly wish she would be this happy when her turn to marry arrived.

Afterwards the newlyweds, Mr. & Mrs. Peter Ashton, invited their guests to join them for dinner and a reception at Covington Gardens. The head table hosted the wedding party. Jeanette was seated between the two male ushers, neither of whom she knew. She suspected they were friends of Peter and Nadine from college.

The best man delivered an eloquent toast to Peter, sharing how Peter and Nadine met at their church, attended high school together and fell in love. Peter had just graduated last month from Springbank Aero Flight Training in Calgary with his pilot’s license. He accepted a flying position with Fed-Ex, a mail courier, and once he got his ‘hours in’ planned to join a passenger airline.

Nadine’s uncle had a keen sense of humour. Nadine has a love of the out-of-doors, he said. And a passion for plants and animals and all living things; especially the very small animals – squirrels, chipmunks, hamsters, spiders, he added to a response of laughter. She has a special desire to work with premature infants which, I guess, is why she chose the nursing program at St. Lawrence College. I hope these two have lots of children, he concluded to an instant applause.

After the formalities, a general level of conversation began involving those grouped together at the head table. Soon Jeanette’s two male table companions began to talk hockey. She tried to participate but was quickly eliminated as their argument heated up with her in the middle. She became very quiet, held her head down and tried to block out the rhetoric. Then another male joined in. As you might expect the subject was who would win the Stanley Cup this year – Montreal or Toronto. Jeanette thought, ‘You jerk! It’s only July can’t you think of something else? You’re all dressed up so maybe start trying to impress the girls with a little bit of muscle flexing, or maybe even a dance, things normal twenty year old boys do.’ As they continued, she became more frustrated.

Jeanette had an inability to participate in conversation unless intellectually stimulated. This did not qualify. She tried to interrupt their rant with a sardonic cast of the eye. It didn’t work.

One thing Jeanette learned from being a member of the debating club was the power of words to control the human mind, whether individually or in a group. Her spikiness of mind kicked in. She decided to put the boys in their place with a jab she learned from her dad.

You know last year the Toronto Maple Leafs gave an exhibition game in aid of cancer research with a team from Cape Breton Island, she began. Silence fell on her section of the head table. The three boys were all ears. They were like birds clamming up when the cat enters the yard. She continued, I guess the Leafs gave them a real break because at the end of the first period the score was one to nothing for Cape Breton. In the dressing room those crazy Islanders thought a hockey game only had one period so they left for a pub on Young Street. Do you know that seventeen minutes and forty-three seconds into the second period the Leafs managed to tie it all up? One of the boys caught on and started to laugh, the Leaf fan now gave her a cutting glare, and the other guy wondered what the first guy was laughing about.

Would one of you like to change seats so you boys can chat together? she asked sarcastically.

Chapter 2

Jeanette was born August 5th, 1990, the eldest of five children. Yvonne was born in 1994; Drew 1996, Michelle 1998 and Tyler came into the world two years later. Tyler was full of mischief. The other member of the family was ‘Puggy’ a four year old black Labrador retriever.

Given the father’s Acadian background, both parents, and Jeanette and Yvonne all spoke French fluently. The younger three were struggling in this area. Now with the children all in school the mother, Sally, was ready to re-enter the work force. But without a university degree or college diploma plus the drastic cut-backs taking place in the hightech industry around Ottawa her prospects were not promising. Prior to starting her family she had worked in a publisher’s office part-time as a proof reader in Shawville, Quebec.

Jeanette was an avid reader and smart...she figured things out quickly. In elementary school she mastered tasks in a few days that would take most of her classmates much longer. The result, she was bored to death most of the school year. When Mrs. Roberts, her English teacher in grade six, gave a thirty-minute assignment to read a chapter and answer three questions, Jeanette had to decide if she would do it in the first five minutes or the last. Stress developed between her, Mrs. Roberts, and the rest of the class.

At age fifteen she entered grade nine at the Upper Ottawa Valley Collegiate Institute. By then, she was taking herself far too seriously, remained aloof and a loner. On her assignments she was more concerned with ‘Is it satisfactory?’ rather than ‘Is it right?’ She would rather make up her own rules than adhere to what her teachers determined was right.

In many ways it was Mr. Tremblay, the Head of the French Department who came to her rescue. Being totally bilingual, she was exempt from the compulsory French classes. But Mr. Tremblay had a problem. Several of his grades nine and ten students - mostly boys - had no interest whatsoever in learning a second language. He approached Jeanette to provide tutoring and gave her considerable leeway. She grabbed at the chance and began with a focus on French cuisines. At the school’s Christmas concert her group offered visitors a taste of Cajun cooking along with their commentary – en Français. Jeanette won many converts that Christmas and the support of Mr. Tremblay throughout the rest of her high school years.

But it didn’t turn out that well with the school’s basketball coach, Mr. Wallace. Because of her height, he harassed her to join his team. It seemed he was always in her face, Join us! Be a team-player, Jeanette - It is the door to your success. When she rebelled he asked why she was so stubborn. She replied, Let me ask you a question? When a farmer shifts from milk cows to beef...what happens to the milk cows? Mr. Wallace replied, I suppose they are put out to pasture. Jeanette’s quick answer, They go to the slaughter house, Sir. Just like the high-tech industries who failed in Kanata, only their team-players ended up at Tim Horton’s. Is that the future you’re trying to sell me?

Jeanette was beginning to find her voice.

Things that captured the attention of others simply didn’t interest her. The one extra-curricular activity she enjoyed was the debating club, which required her to be more in competition with herself. With each competition she knew she was perfecting her powers to communicate.

Last year her grade eleven physics teacher Mr. Simons, said, Jeanette, you have the brain of a university graduate locked in a teenage body. That comment was certainly true.

But she was no super-teen. In fact she failed at many tasks and challenges others her age handled like a piece of cake. Once, at home, she answered a long distance call from UPS trying to get her family’s proper postal code for a delivery. She panicked and was unable to answer. Just totally confused and frustrated as to how to find the postal code while at the same time thinking this delivery must be very important. Try looking in the phone book, genius, yelled her brother Drew.

She was involved with her church’s youth group, and three summers ago several of the teens from her church went on a weekend retreat to Camp Iawah near Westport. The group included Peter and his girl friend and later wife, Nadine. On Saturday evening around the campfire Peter shared a personal