BY MAREK KRASUSKI
His voice is muffled by the accumulated weight of decades, but J.N. (Pat) Charette, 97, walks down a long hall at Pioneer Manor with the brisk gait of a military officer: precise, erect and firm.
Charette walks the same terrain where he once played as a boy growing up on the family farm nearly 100 years ago.
Revenue Canada, Pioneer Manor, the Co-operative Funeral Home and the Lasalle St. cemetery sit on land that once belonged to Charette’s grandfather.
Abraham Charette moved to Sudbury in the 19th century from Buckingham, Que. It was a time when self-reliance was integral to survival.
“My grandfather had to build a raft and float down Junction Creek to get to town from the railway station,” reflects Charette about the stories told to him as a youngster.
On June 17, 1910, Charette was born in his grandfather’s home, which stood around the corner from Pioneer Manor on Lasalle.
Some memories, more than others, are permanently etched into his sharp and nimble mind.
“I remember the ducks on the pond. There were all kinds of ducks.”
He also remembers when a racetrack abutted Notre Dame Ave.
Charette’s recent arrival at Pioneer Manor was prompted by a persistent bladder infection. He has never had a heart attack or stroke, common afflictions of the aged. Nor has he experienced deteriorating mental health. Aside from the slight barrier of a hearing impairment, his responses to a barrage of questions are swift and precise, a result he attributes to a life well lived.
He never smoke or drank, preferring instead the refuge of a rich family life.
“I enjoyed going out and meeting people at parties, but the best fun was coming home,” he recalls.
Charette married his second wife, Lina, at the age of 50. She was 18 at the time and they have never regretted the age difference.
“We’ve had a good life together,” she says of their 47-year partnership.
Both Lina and Pat Charette attribute their happiness to doing what they loved to do. For much of their married life that love was invested in operating a tourist resort near Alban, south of Sudbury.
But Charette’s insatiable curiosity led him into other professional and social pursuits. He served as a justice of the peace for five years, worked as a campaign manager for politican Gaston Demers, and at one time sat on the board of Pioneer Manor.
His closing remarks in response to the inevitable question of how to live a long and healthy life are as precise as his deliberate gestures. “Get into the tourist business,” he advises.
