Juliette and Oscar helped us, rendered us a great service the year of our fire, but they also had their own challenges to face, which were just as horrendous. All summer, the family had suffered through many little illnesses of unknown origins. As much as they tried to find causes, they never could pinpoint it.
This changed, as it often does, all at once.
On that day, Juliette was finally starting to feel better after giving birth, so she got up and made a batch of peach pies. I was sick that day, so she sent her aide, Thérèse Fortier to my house to help me out.
Juliette’s baking was a thing of legend, and her children loved peach pies. Everyone ate his or her fill – even Juliette ate a piece.
Before long, the entire family was violently ill. Everyone was sick: no one spared.
While waiting for the doctor, everyone tried to drink some milk, but no one could hold it down. They couldn’t stand the taste.
Milk was a common country remedy for upset stomachs and other symptoms they were presenting.
When the doctor arrived, he saw that it was a mass poisoning (it must not have been the first time) He took samples of all their food and rushed it to Montreal on the next train for testing.
The lab quickly telegraphed back the flour was 25% arsenic. The flour tainted with arsenic had laid them low.
The top of the contaminated bag had a lower concentration of arsenic, so all summer long, Juliette’s children suffered from diarrhea when she made a sauce, some ragout, or even a cake, but no more than that. Using flour from the bottom of the bag for her peach pies – the more Juliette baked, the more deadly the pies.
Since Juliette knew we loved her pies, she sent one to the house so everyone could get a taste. There was enough for each of my children, so I cut the pie appropriately into small portions. After I gave each a piece, there was a one left for me.
I tasted it, looked at Guy and said, “You seemed to like your pie, go ahead and eat the rest.”
And he did, but he didn’t get sick like my others. The doctor told me that he had eaten so much food with his meal that the poison did not have as much effect.
All the others were sick that night, especially Jeanne Mance.
Juliette and her brood healed fast, though not without much anguish and physical pain – some of it violent. Juliette’s kidneys suffered long-term damage and her next pregnancy almost took her life.
Every other day, something else would go wrong. Luckily her husband, Oscar, took very good care of her, better than a fulltime nurse. She survived, but only after much worry by all concerned.
