In Honor of Lorraine Irene Therriault, Our Mother
October 24, 2020
Lorraine Irene Therriault was born September 14, 1938 in Grande Isle, Maine, and passed into the next life October 19, 2020. She was the 2nd child of her parents, Leo and Annie Doucette.
She leaves behind remaining siblings June Bouchard, Linda Martin, Guy, Harold, Roger and Ronald Doucette and two siblings who passed before her, Gerald and Raymond Doucette.
Growing up, Lorraine, like her musically talented family, learned how to play an instrument. She was quite skilled on the piano and organ and her styles ranged from honky tonk to gospel.
While working as a waitress at age 16 at Alan’s Cafe in Grande Isle, Maine, she caught my dad’s eye!
At age 19, she married Claude Louis Therriault of Lille, Maine on July 27, 1957 in Hartford, CT at St. Anne’s church and had a fabulous wedding reception with 300 guests at the French Club. Their two-week honeymoon began in Niagara Falls, NY, then Montreal, Canada and ended by visiting relatives in Maine.
Like many other French descendants from Northern Maine, they moved to Hartford, CT due to employment opportunities and were hired quickly since they were hard workers. In the early days, Lorraine went to hairdressing school and worked briefly in that industry before getting married and having children.
Lorraine and her husband, Claude, always honored God in their lives and hoped their children would also choose to follow in God’s ways. We were very blessed that she was our mother since she was loving, self-sacrificing, kind and thoughtful.
Her remaining children are Sandra Therriault, Darlene Dixon, Louise Sandberg and Carl Therriault (since she experienced the loss of her eldest son, Dennis Joseph Therriault, who passed April 1, 2020). She also leaves behind grandchildren Melissa Leonard, Pamela Masson, Richard Dixon, Gina, Audrey and Jeffrey Therriault and 10 great grandchildren.
She was quite the ice skater in her day and our parents often took us ice skating and snow sledding in the Wintertime, camping in the Summer and were, generally, very fun parents to have.
I recall my mom and dad going to a masquerade party once and my mom wore a cool “bright pink, lime green and white mini-culotte outfit with white go-go boots” and my dad dressed like Albert Einstein with a crazy wig, playing a violin (badly) to the then-popular “Winchester Cathedral” song to go with their outfits.
Also, we had numerous adventures traveling across country by car from Massachusetts to Southern California (and back) and lived in Santa Monica, CA six months each in 1967 and 1969 (while my dad attended computer training). We have happy family memories of going to the Santa Monica Beach Boardwalk, Disneyland and Tijuana, Mexico, to name a few places.
While we were teenagers, she worked at various jobs including the Accounts Payable department at Tautron.
Around that time, my parents went on several trips to various European countries with Uncle Claude and Aunt Rita Violette. Also, as a perk from my dad’s employer at the time, Xerox, my parents went to the Bahamas several times as well as to New Orleans, Louisiana.
In recent years, she was an aquasize instructor at the Radisson Hotel, Chelmsford, MA. Many of those ladies became her friends and some joined her in the Purple Hat Society, a social club for women over 50.
We are very grateful to her brother, Ronald Doucette, whose actions blessed us with another 25 years of life with my mother due to him giving her a kidney that she needed to survive.
While we may have great sorrow today, we hope to find comfort in knowing that she is not suffering anymore and believe she is with her beloved, departed husband, Claude, in Heaven.
We pray she is with Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, joining the holy angels singing eternal praises to our Holy God!
We hope to meet you again in Heaven, Ma (Lorraine). You will be truly missed!
“Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him. Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in you.” (Psalm 33, verses 20-22)
Blessings and love, always and forever,
Sandra, Darlene, Louise & Carl