As a child, Marie Eve Garneau wanted nothing to do with working at her parents’ funeral home, and not for fear of death, but because the lives of others were omnipresent in her own.
“I said it was a hypocritical job because it always put other people’s families ahead of ours. Of course I changed my mind,” reveals Marie Eve Garneau, mother of four, at the helm of the first generation of women at the helm of Groupe Garneau Thanatologue in Lévis.
The first of the group’s six funeral homes was located in the courtyard of her childhood home, right next to the family home.
A CHSLD was parked opposite, and when there was a death, a mourner crossed the street and knocked on Garneau’s door.
Marie Eve’s father answered in the middle of the night in his dressing gown. Often he had to cancel a planned family activity because death was imminent.
And there were all kinds of funerals to organize, even Hells Angels ones, since Saint-Nicolas’ hideout was not far away.
Dreaming of somewhere else
In a life that differed from that of her friends, Marie Eve dreamed of teaching law, theater or French.
Professions in which she would express herself loud and clear, she who had watched so many people silenced, people who might not have had the opportunity to say everything before they died.
But one day, Valérie, her older sister, suggested that she try thanatology, and Marie Eve thought she might give that path a try.
Arriving at the labs on the second day of her studies in Toronto, she felt at home while the other students were in shock.
The young woman found love in Ontario and brought it back to Quebec. Since then she has worked with her husband and sister at Groupe Garneau.
The two women were set to take over together, but Valérie was stricken with a degenerative disease in 2021.
“COVID has given me time off from ringette coaching, hockey and partying with friends. This gave me more time to get used to my sister’s illness,” says Marie Eve, who, through the agony, enjoys seeing her loved ones every day.
The urgency to live
It’s as if Marie Eve forged close bonds before death came to take away a thing or two, which she always does. She also gave birth four times so her children would never feel alone.
“You will be amazed at how much funeral homes feel the urgency of life. We know better than anyone that tomorrow is not promised,” she said.
There is probably no more emotional business environment than that of funeral homes.
And Marie Eve had to learn to protect herself, because her role is to lend a shoulder, to be a pillar on which the bereaved can lean.
Still, in all thanatologist professions, there is an all-too-lived grief.
For them, it was the little sisters Norah and Romy who were murdered by Martin Carpentier. They were the same age as Marie Eve’s daughters.
Luckily, there were other Garneau around her to lean on to continue her mission of helping her.
MUCH
Entrepreneurship is…?
“Build the parachute by jumping. It constantly adapts to everything. »
If you could change one thing in the world what would it be?
“Human tolerance that has somewhat lost the concept of life in society. »
Who inspires you?
“My father: He would give what he doesn’t have. My sister Valérie, a visionary who made it possible for me to find a place for myself as a woman. »
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