A Touching Tribute To Her Grandfather By Meggan Roberge

Any of us who have lived in Fairfax more than a few years knew Elodien & Edith Roberge, a truly wonderful and loving couple who lived together a little over 58 years before Edith died. I attended the funeral of Elodien yesterday and was privy to hearing Meggan Roberge, one of his granddaughters give a very touching Eulogy about her grandfather. Trudy, one of Meggan's cousins sent me a copy and Meggan sent word that it was ok for me to post it. Something truly worth reading:

Elodien & Edith - Together Forever

Eulogy for Elodien Roberge given by his granddaughter, Meggan Roberge

I stand up here today, next to Pepe, as only one of his 19 grandchildren. He has so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren that even our own family must resort to identifying us by who we belong too. So for everyone who is wondering who I am, I’m “Louie’s daughter” or some of you might know me as the grandkid who played baseball.

We all knew my Pepe as a storyteller. Not just a run of the mill storyteller—each of his stories were a fantastic tale that could sometimes run light on actual facts and heavy on exaggeration and imagination. I think it is only fitting that now it is our turn to do the storytelling in classic Pepe style, and he can just sit back and listen.

On a typical sugaring-cold March morning, Elodien was born to a young French-Canadian couple. Only a few months later the couple and baby moved to Vermont. And here is where Pepe's stories would begin. He joked just 3 weeks ago at Easter that if his parents would have moved just two months sooner he could have been a natural US citizen.

Growing up, Pepe was the oldest of 6, having 3 brothers and 2 sisters. He was in the 8th grade when his mom had a difficult time with one of the pregnancies so Grandpa stayed home to take care of the kids while his dad worked. One of his funniest stories is he learned how to cook-by-instruction. He would go in and get a few instructions from his mother, go to the kitchen and do them, return for more instructions and perform them as told until dinner was done. I'd imagine that leftovers night was his favorite.

Already I have talked about Pepe’s story for a few minutes and have yet to even mention the beautiful queen in the story: the most important person in his life, Meme. She was the cheese to his apple pie, and I say that with a grin as she always said, “Apple pie without cheese is like a bum without squeeze.” She was the love of his life and to the end she was the only one that could recite every one of his stories—word for word. But, even though she knew them all, she would listen to them as if she was hearing them for the first time, and laugh.

Edith and Elodien were a couple whose hearts were the size of their noses, which if you have had the great luck to inherit or if you take a look around, you will know exactly what I mean. I say that in jest as no one could top the King of Picking and Jokes.

For fun, the King and his Queen loved going to fiddling contests around the state. These gatherings allowed them to meet and greet with friends while also giving them a reprieve from the hectic lifestyle of a farmer in rural Vermont.

As a dad, that lifestyle made grandpa tough. He taught each of his children the value of hard work; a lesson that was learned by milking cows, working around the house, taking care of kids, and chopping wood. It was one that could be measured in blisters, sunburns, and sweat stains.

When Gram and Gramp bought the farm and moved to Fairfax, Pepe would get up at 4am to start the chores, run his milk route and make it home in time to milk the cows before going to bed. He was a proud man who wouldn't take anything from anyone. He worked hard for every dime he earned and was able to pay for the farm in 7 years. As stubborn as he was to not accept help from anyone, he was always there to lend a hand. Countless times he would stop aside the road to help a neighbor or would load up his truck and haul grain, sawdust, you-name-it for his fellow farmers.

As a grandpa, he was the best. For a while I loved hot-air balloons so Meme and Pepe would pack me in the car at 5 am to get to the Essex Fair Grounds in time to see Mr. Peanut take off. This is only one of my stories but I know that each grandkid has a handful of their own.

Every Easter Pepe would drive up to Mt. Mansfield to get snow for sugar-on-snow and on Christmas Eve we would sit around the living room enjoying the comfort of family. The list goes on and on, from growing pumpkins with each grandkids name engraved in them to breaking green-tails and holding them between his teeth like a rose and asking for an "onion kiss". He was not the tough old Frenchman that we saw on the outside, but he was a big, softie with a heart as big as those pumpkins that we knew was on the inside.

Pepe and his beautiful queen were married for 58 years—a bond that only the “big guy” himself could halt. Three years ago when grandma passed, it was hard for us all, as grandmothers are always the glue that hold families together. Today we can feel comfort in knowing that grandma and grandpa have been reunited and, when we lay them down next to each other for their final date, everything is the way it is supposed to be.

In these last few years Grandpa wasn’t as mobile as he would have liked and it took him a while to accept the fact that he couldn’t go out and chop wood or shovel the driveway. Even though he couldn't do the work he had spent his whole life doing, his spirit remained high as he continued to tell stories to anyone and everyone that would listen. In typical Pepe fashion, he would wake up every morning and say to Pat “guess where I am this morning,” recalling the dreams he’d had the night before.

Sadly, every story has its ending. Except Pepe’s is a rare case. His story doesn’t end here today or last Friday because we will always remember how he got that tractor stuck or the burdock bushes that looked like a bear that he fought with a hammer. His stories have become a part of each of us, they are part of our story. And so our responsibility is to keep on telling that story to our children so the story of Elodien Roberge, our friend, brother, uncle, father and grandfather, keeps growing with every generation.