July 17, 2009
Grand Coteau
Twelve years ago on March 11, my mother’s birthday, she and I and my then 2 year old daughter drove to historic Grand Coteau, LA to visit the Academy of the Sacred Heart. At the time, I was considering the Academy for my daughter and I wanted to check it out. To describe this historic school would take most of the day; it is nearly 200 years old, begun in 1821 by Mother Eugenie Aude and Sister Mary Layton. Eight girls entered the school in October of that year and it has been in operation ever since, maintaining its’ all girl status and its’ religious conviction. Sadly, my mother would pass away unexpectedly later that year and my daughter would begin school in our town instead of an hour away at the Academy. I have always wanted to go back there with my daughter but I feared the pain of the memories. Yesterday was the day I chose to make the trek and to find again all that happened that day with my mom. We visited the same places and saw the same things, this time I was “the mom” and I was the one to explain Acadian history and how life used to be in Grand Coteau, an old Acadian settlement that time has not ravished with Wal-Mart’s and golden arches.
It was very “freeing” to be able to make the emotional journey and remember that day, which was to be my mother’s last birthday, and share a bit of it with her granddaughter, whom sadly, has no memory of her. We were given a tour of the school. I cannot begin to describe this place. They were putting in central air for the first time. The nuns in those habits in the Deep South,just try to imagine the feeling!! The most amazing space was the chapel and the infirmary that houses the Shrine of Saint John Berchmans, where the miracle actually occurred.
We Continued to Arnaudville and then to Breaux Bridge ,an excursion that took us along the Bayou Teche, amongst the sugarcane and milo fields and back to my mom. This is the kind of thing she loved to do; to go back in time to places she had read about and times she had known. I have to say, it was a bit different with my daughter, however, with her iPod plugged into the dashboard listening to music from Jack Jones to Jason Aldean and noticing how small these places were. With my mom, there would be little music, instead there would be history lessons from her. flavored with personal tidbits from her past. I suppose that is exactly how I must have sounded to my daughter today, like an audio guide and a personal story teller. Life is a circle.
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