Layout Editor: Francine Bédard Hô ─ Reviser: Carole Beauchamp

A Word from Appeal’s President A Tour of Mount Hermon Cemetery

It’s hard to believe that we are not only at the On October 15th, nearly 20 members of APPEAL end of our Fall session but also at the end of gathered on the grounds of the Mount Hermon 2019. It’s been a session of changes for us all – cemetery in Sillery. At first the men gathered a new board, a new location and new hours. together, and the women in another group. The board has met every month since August Astonishing in 2019, or not? But as soon as our and we are working on more changes coming in guide, Brian Treggett appeared, we all gathered the future. As you will see when you receive around him for the tour of the upper part of the registration form, we are now able to the cemetery (the lower part was closed on accept Interac email transfers as payment. In account of a funeral.) No horse to be taken off order to do this you must indicate your desire the avenue or paths, said one of the rules at to pay this way and a member of the board the entrance of Mount Hermon cemetery, rules may contact you with details on how to that date back to the opening of the cemetery proceed. We are also studying the possibility of in 1848. re-instating flexible memberships. However, this will not be available for the Winter session 2020 but we are trying to find ways to make it work for members and APPEAL. Our Activities Committee has been busy ensuring that our social members as well as regular members have had plenty of activities to attend with approximately one activity every week. As I write this, they are hard at planning the Winter activities.

As the Session ends, on behalf of everyone on the Board, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a joyous and happy New Year. May you be blessed with happiness and health in the coming years. Enjoy this holiday with family and friends. We look forward to seeing you in This tour gave us an opportunity to learn about the upcoming Winter session. the builders of Québec City in the 19th and in the 20th centuries. The first burial was that of Teresa Chicoine Christopher Ferguson. Now, over 16 600 President A.P.P.E.A.L.1984inc persons are buried in Mount Hermon

APPEAL December 2019 (418) 659-7616 Email : [email protected] Newsletter Coordinator/Writer/ Layout Editor: Francine Bédard Hô ─ Reviser: Carole Beauchamp cemetery. Why was it located there, outside people who died there, were Lorie Pierce‘s the city in those years? Mr. Treggett explained great grand-parents. She told us that the body that there was a cholera epidemic in 1831 and of her great-grandmother was found, but the the city did not want the corpses to be buried body of her great-grandfather was not. In the inside the city. It had to be at least three miles cemetery, we can find three lots that were away. Another reason was that the old bought by the Canadian Pacific in memory of cemeteries were almost full, so “in 1847 a the victims of this tragedy. There is also a group of eight prominent members of the section dedicated to the Canadian Armed English community formed the Quebec Forces and also a propeller in memory of three Protestant Cemetery Association with the American mapping technicians who died in objective of raising the required capital to buy 1942 in Bellechasse. land and open a cemetery”1. Mr. Treggett told us that at the time, the On our tour, we were able to read famous cemetery was like a flower garden and on names on the monuments such as John Sunday, the families would bring their chairs Breakey, (saw mill owner, Breakeyville) George and spend the afternoon around the tomb T. Davie (Davie Shipbuilding Company), John talking about the dead person. Gilmour (important ship builder who gave Gilmour Hill its name), John Henderson Holt (co-founder of Holt Renfrew and Company), James MacPherson Le Moine (Lawyer, writer and historian), Joseph Morrin M.D. (founder of the Morrin College), George O’Kill Stuart (lawyer, politician, mayor of Quebec from 1846 to 1850), William Price (founder of the Price company, family of the Auberge Saint-Antoine), John Simons (founder of la Maison Simons in 1840) and many others.

The cemetery is not reserved only for Before going into the gothic revival style house Protestants. There are also some lots that were at the entrance (designed by architect Edward bought by the Cambodian community or the Staveley) to warm up and hear a bit of history Greek community and different memorials are of the Scottish people in Quebec, Brian dedicated to different groups of people who Treggett showed us the Treggett Bell that was died in a tragedy: there is one in memory of the given to the family as testimony to the numerous Inuit people buried there between dedicated work of the four generations who 1945 and 1975; another in memory of the 179 have acted as superintendents of this cemetery people who perished in the Montreal since 1865. Steamboat Disaster; and another to those who perished on the Empress of Ireland near Rimouski on May 29th 1914. Among the 1 012

1 Excerpt from the Mount Hermon Cemetery leaflet.

APPEAL December 2019 (418) 659-7616 Email : [email protected] Newsletter Coordinator/Writer/ Layout Editor: Francine Bédard Hô ─ Reviser: Carole Beauchamp

Fiddler on the Roof: a True Delight!

The Quebec Art Company sure knows how to captivate its spectators, so much that we thought that we were part of this small Jewish village where tradition was the rule in Imperial Russia around 1905. But things change and Tevye, the dairyman, the father of five daughters, has to deal with his three oldest daughters who want to marry for love, and not through a match-maker. At one point, he is torn between his love for his daughters and everything he believes in: his Jewish faith and his cultural heritage. Finally, the villagers are evicted by an edict of the Tsar.

To put on such a musical required a large crew and musicians: an accordionist, violinists, a clarinetist, and a keyboardist under Director

Hugh Glassco. The crew made a fantastic job Why is the cemetery called Mount Hermon? with the costumes and the setting. The leaflet that was available to us says: The cast was composed of 29 artists who “Mount Hermon, a mountain which forms the danced, sang and made us laugh or sad. The south spur of the Anti-Lebanon range on the main character, Tevye, played by Michel border of Palestine, is mentioned several times Blackburn was outstanding, as was his wife, in the Old Testament. Its summit is always Golde, played by Mary Bernier, and all the covered with snow”. others.

This musical, directed by Patricia Grimaud, Community Christmas Hamper Campaign started and ended in a very ingenious way, on a screen above the stage. At the beginning, we For the past 24 years, the English-speaking see a man pulling a cart in the country and community of the Greater Québec City region suddenly, the same man appears on stage: it’s has come together to run a very successful Tevye. At the end, Tevye, Golde and their two Christmas Hamper Campaign. youngest daughters leave their house with If you want to help, you can give food, money their cart full of their poor belongings and we or volunteer your time. Visit their website at see them on the screen, walking on a path in qchampers.ca to learn about the non- the country in the summer time dressed perishable food drop off and how to make a exactly like they were on the stage. A genius monetary donation. idea!

If you have not been to a QAC production, try it! The next one in May 2020 will be Wait Until

APPEAL December 2019 (418) 659-7616 Email : [email protected] Newsletter Coordinator/Writer/ Layout Editor: Francine Bédard Hô ─ Reviser: Carole Beauchamp

Dark by Frederick Knott directed by Cheryl Rimmer.

Merry Christmas to all

As the year 2019 is coming to an end, it’s time for me to thank my reviser Carole Beauchamp for her help and all the collaborators along the year who have agreed to write in this Newsletter. I also want to remind you that any member can write here as long as the content is respectful of the aim of APPEAL.

Finally, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May peace and joy be with us in 2020!

Francine Bédard Hô