BY LAUREN CLEM
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: The author’ s grandparents, Marcel and Georgette Duguay, in Alaska; the author’ s Mémère in Hawaii; the author and her cousin, Patrick, in Nova Scotia during a trip with their grandparents; the author’ s Pépère riding a camel in Australia; the author’ s Pépère snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef; the author’ s Pépère in Ireland; the author’ s Mémère with Pope John Paul II; the author’ s Mémère in Venice; the author’ s grandparents in South Africa; the author’ s grandparents in Egypt. companies, accompanied by notes in my Mémère’ s neat handwriting on itineraries and hotels.
It wasn’ t only in albums that the memories lived. In the newspaper rack beside my Pépère’ s chair, Woonsocket Calls and crossword puzzles accumulated next to copies of National Geographic that I spent hours poring over on the carpet. A painted ostrich egg from South Africa sat alongside family photos in the living room, while miniature plush koalas from Australia clung to the bannisters between the shelves. Devout Catholics, my grandparents filled their walls with religious images and journeyed to pilgrimage sites in Israel and Europe. It seemed only natural that there should be a photo of my Mémère kissing Pope John
Paul II’ s ring during a lucky encounter on a trip to Rome.( I later learned most Catholics do not, in fact, have a photo of their grandmother with a saint.)
Marcel and Georgette grew up working class in a time when women rarely finished high school and men enlisted before the ink dried on their diplomas. My Pépère, who attended Mount Saint Charles Academy,
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026 35