Sudbury.com readers, you should be very proud of yourselves. Because of you, Constance Lamothe’s locket is heading back to her mother.
But we’re calling her Connie now, because her mother says she hated to be called Constance.
You may remember Sudbury.com’s initial plea for help in finding Connie Lamothe’s mother. Brigitte Gemus, a local resident and childhood friend of Connie’s, found a locket that belonged to her friend, containing a photo of Connie and her older brother Gerry. Gemus wanted desperately to return the locket to Connie’s family, so she asked Sudbury.com for help. (If you would like to read the first story, click here.)
Thanks to you, the locket is heading home to Lucille Lamothe, Connie’s mother, who now lives in Bellevue, Newfoundland.
Lamothe moved soon after the accident, unable to look at her Bancroft Drive home and driveway, the place her beloved daughter died.
Connie was born in 1966 and her mother describes her as a shy but sweet child who had a deep love of music. She died at the age of 10 in an accident, a sudden and unavoidable tragedy that took her life too soon.
She and another child were playing in the Lamothe driveway when a trailer collapsed. One child ran one way and Connie, fatefully, ran the other way. She died that day. Her friend, deeply traumatized from the incident, moved away soon after.
Just before Lamothe decided to move away from the home filled with tragic memories, she split with Connie’s father, then made her way to Newfoundland, St. John’s, to be specific. She remarried, then had another son, Chad, with her new husband, and they now live in Bellevue. Though she still misses her daughter, Lamothe said she is happy and healthy.
Gemus had no idea how the locket came to be in her possession, but as soon as she found it and remembered the death of her young friend, she knew she had to do something. After seeing a familiar name on a Sudbury.com story (that name would be the “Lamothe” in reporter Jenny Lamothe), she thought we could help. While there is no relation, Sudbury.com has powerful readers.
Because you read the story and shared it far and wide, Lucille Lamothe will soon receive a tiny piece of her daughter back, the daughter she lost so long ago, but a loss that will never truly heal.
Connie’s mother said she heard about the story from her son, who had received a message about it from his cousin. Lamothe says she cried when she heard, but is so happy to have found this long-lost piece of her daughter, a child she describes as sweet and shy.
“It was so long ago, I don’t even remember what happened to the locket,” said Lamothe.
Funny thing is, Gemus doesn’t know how it came into her possession either. But thankfully, the locket is now headed to Newfoundland soon, to be back in the hands of Connie’s mother.
Lamothe said she was touched by the story shares and the work to send the locket home to her. She sends a thank you across the provinces to her hometown.
Well done, Sudbury.
