Françoise Gourd 1950 – 2017

Shared by Doug Atwood

In June 2017, we lost a friend and active member of our community.

Françoise Gourd

Françoise – Fanchon to her family – was born in Abitibi. She grew up in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, in a family of 9 nine children (five brothers and four sisters). They were close and she often talked about them and the wonderful family gatherings she attended in Montreal.

She loved the outdoors and liked to walk on nature trails in wooded areas. When she was younger she was active in sports such as biking and swimming.

In the 1970’s Françoise moved to Ottawa, where she spent most of her adult life working as a translator.

In later years when she was unable to have a regular job due to declining health, she worked as a French tutor for young children. She was very good with children and would speak for hours about the joy that working with them brought to her and their various antics. She loved kids and they loved her.

One of the things that I admired about her most is that she chose to take each day as it came. She had no tolerance for negativity and chose to live in the moment and take joy in the small miracles that each day brought to her. She had problems with her health and suffered complications from asthma, multiple chemical sensitivities, environmental illness and a bad hip but she refused to be identified by her illnesses.

Françoise was a sweet and helpful person, in every respect. She was generous with her knowledge and research and quick to share information. She often did research with others and was actively involved with creating the Safe Housing Directory for the AEHA when the chapter was active in Ottawa. Françoise and her contributions will be missed.

~ Doug Atwood

Special thanks to Dr. A. and her staff. She mentioned you often and often remarked on how lucky she was to be your patient and was grateful for the care that she received and the warm and understanding human contact she had at your clinic.

Memorial Donations to the ASEQ-EHAQ’s One Million Bricks fundraising campaign for EI safe housing would be appreciated.
http://www.aseq-ehaq-en.ca/donations.html

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This memorial was originally shared in a fb group and can also be found here:
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-community-other/ottawa/obituary-francoise-gourd-1950-2017/1293097535