PrimeTime Magazine PrimeTime Spring 2019 | Page 16

On the Move Paul Gaudet [email protected] The genesis of my being began in a seedy hotel room in Halifax in 1951, where my future parents were celebrating the success of their latest bank robbery by indulging in some extracurricular activity …. ok I am just kidding. I was born in Moncton in 1951 and lived in Lewisville with my parents and three siblings (one brother and twin sisters). My father Rudy was a car foreman at CNR and my mother Marie worked in the Accounts office at Eaton’s. I went to a French catholic parochial school St. Louis de France and was taught by the nuns there. I was an excellent student in those days finishing at or near the top of my class most of the time. We spoke English at home as my father was anglicized while growing up in North Sydney, (Cape Breton, N.S.) and my mother who is of Irish descent comes from the Miramichi area. I credit my sister Patsy for teaching me to read at a young age and giving me a lifelong passion for the English language. I went to Moncton High school for what was to be a rather unremarkable academic career. I was a good athlete, played football and later tennis. I attended the University of Moncton for two years, did summer schooling at U.P.E.I and took a journalism course at Holland college. I worked in the hospitality industry for many years as a bartender and later as a bar manager in various locations. In my later years I had a few physical setbacks. My life changed dramatically when I had to have quadruple bypass heart surgery in Saint John at the age of 49. I must give credit and thanks to my friend Patricia Sauriol Dupuis who badgered me to have my shortness of breath episodes looked into and who in retrospect saved my life. ? 16 PrimeTime SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2019 Route 114, Hopewell Cape Albert County/Comté d’Albert The surgery (performed by the amazing Dr. Parrott) was an unqualified success and really changed my way of thinking about my smoking habit and lack of exercise. I embarked upon a regimen of physical activity and then joined the Moncton Outdoor Enthusiasts (a club which has enriched and prolonged my life). The Outdoor Enthusiasts are for the most part a hiking club and I grabbed on to the hiking world like my life depended on it - which it probably did. It fostered in me a deep love and appreciation for the beauty and purity of nature that I will carry with me until the end of my life. This spring it will be 19 years of blissful hiking, snowshoeing and other outdoor activities, not to mention many meaningful relationships, all because of my association with this club. Later on, more bad health news was to plague me in the form of prostate cancer which I had treated in Moncton by the innovative methods of Dr. Felice (Georges Dumont Hospital) who performed brachytherapy which involves inserting 102 radioactive isotopes in or near the prostate (a lovely experience). That was more than ten years ago and so far so good. Then there was my hip which had been acting up for years and began to seriously affect my ability to hike, so I finally had to have hip replacement