Rosaire Tousignant’s Grocery Store

We had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Cécile Poisson-Tousignant, who, with her husband Rosaire, ran a grocery store in Saint-Pierre on the site of the present-day post office, across from the church.

In the early 1950s the couple bought a business from Hervé Brisson at the corner of rue Lapérade and rue Marie-Victorin; it was a general store that, although run-down, had good potential. With a great deal of work the Tousignants restored the building and turned it into a general store that sold a little of everything: hardware, Sherwin-Williams paint, men’s socks, work clothes, canned goods, “beans” by the pound, split peas for soup, molasses in bulk; flour, sugar, buckwheat — the variety was there. A little later a butcher’s counter was opened; Simon Brunelle worked there, as did Michel Brisson.

Suppliers came by regularly to stock the store; her husband Rosaire would go out to take orders from customers farther afield and then deliver them.

All the children helped keep the grocery running, which gave them a sense of responsibility and a little pocket money.

The store was open every Sunday as a service to customers who combined their religious duties with practical errands; the parish priests were very understanding. Opening hours were highly flexible and adjusted to the needs of the clientele; it was not unusual for Mrs. Tousignant to open the store in the evening to help a customer out. Selling beer outside certain hours, however, was not permitted, a rule strictly observed. The long hours of work allowed the couple to raise a fine family and to give their children a good education.

The spirit of volunteering that animated the couple over the years cannot go unmentioned. Mr. Rosaire Tousignant served, among other roles, as a school commissioner and as chairman of the Les Becquets school board in the 1970s; he took part in the site meetings during the construction of the École secondaire Les Seigneuries in 1974, and was president of the St-Pierre seniors’ club in the 1990s. Mrs. Cécile Tousignant, for her part, organized the pilgrimages to the Notre-Dame-du-Cap shrine for several years and long sang in the choir of the Saint-Pierre-apôtre church. In 1972 the couple appeared as « Monsieur et Madame Tricentenaire » [Mr. and Mrs. Tercentenary] during the festivities marking the three-hundredth anniversary of the seigneury (seigneurie).

In 1987 the couple sold the business after a full life; Mr. Rosaire Tousignant died in 2007. His wife Cécile, deeply attached to her native village, chose to remain there. Still able to marvel at the lace of snow covering the trees outside her window, she is living out happy days at the Des-Jardins-les-Becquets residence, surrounded by her memories.