Have you heard about Danielle Ouimet’s fantastic project “Before getting”? Interview notable Quebec personalities about their careers, their lives, their legacy and know that their end is near. These interviews will only be published after her death.
• Also read: Serge Laprade dies at the age of 83
When I heard about Serge Laprade's death, I immediately thought he had gone too soon. He couldn't have confided in the presenter, actress and author Danielle Ouimet. Imagine the conversations these two would have had about Quebec show business while starring in L'Initiation together!
STORAGE REQUIREMENT
I have often said that in Quebec we have no memory. That we did not appreciate our elders, our predecessors, in their true worth. That the youngest ones could see no further than the tip of their own navel.
That's why I applauded when my friend Danielle (secretly) told me her idea for interviews. And I applauded when I found out it worked this week.
- Listen to Serge Laprade's latest interview on Sophie Durocher's show QUB :
To “preserve the memory of the great builders of Quebec,” Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe announced he would donate more than $2,755,000 to the “Before Leaving” project. It is “the ultimate meeting full of emotions and a legacy of various key figures in our society for future generations”.
These are 50 45-minute interviews produced by France Beaudoin (from Pamplemousse) and broadcast (at the time of the subjects' deaths) on Télé-Québec and on the Bibliothèque et Archives nationaux du Québec (BAnQ) website .
I am pleased that Minister Mathieu Lacombe is funding this project. He who already told me that it was normal that people of his generation did not know certain great builders of the previous generation.
I interviewed Serge Laprade at QUB on December 14, 2023. When I asked him why he got married, he replied, “Why not?” And when I asked him why he waited so long to openly experience his love, he said, “The timing is good, the company has “That wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago.” How would the women who were crazy about him when he sang “Du” in front of me have reacted if they had found out that he loved men? “I think it would have certainly jeopardized my career profoundly. I did this job to be loved, I was looking for love all my life because my mother died when I was five years old.
It is important for young Quebecers to measure the path they have traveled to achieve…
- Listen to Mario Lirette and Érick Rémy's reactions to the death of Serge Laprade QUB :
Goodbye, Ms. B
In an interview on QUB on Wednesday, Danielle Ouimet told me that she would have liked to interview Denise Bombardier.
Thursday, January 18th was Denise's birthday.
Had life not taken our lives in July 2023, she would have been 83 years old. We would have eaten in a restaurant and drank a very good Burgundy.
She would have worn her awards (Order of Canada, National Order of Quebec, Legion of Honor) in her buttonhole.
We would have talked about life and death.
When we look in the rearview mirror in the face of the Grim Reaper, we all ask ourselves the same questions: What did we succeed, what did we fail?
What would Ms. B. have wanted to talk about “before she left”?