File

The 28 letters that make up this file were sent by Mariette Bergeron to her future husband, Jérémie Tremblay, from April to December 1952. The couple had been dating for two years when Jérémie had to leave the Saguenay region that year to pursue a degree in dental surgery. A veritable chronicle of a shared love that endured despite the separation, the correspondence reveals the hopes and fears of a young woman on the cusp of twenty in the early 1950s, whose confidence is sometimes undermined by the hardship of separation.

Along with words of love and musings on their possible future together, Mariette writes about her daily life working at an Arvida school and her social activities, primarily visits with family and friends. We learn that she enjoys listening to the radio series Metropolis by Robert Choquette and occasionally attends Jeunesses Musicales concerts. She also goes to the movies, where she sees Passion immortelle (Song of Love), a film about the life of musician Robert Schumann, and a screening of the fight between boxers Jersey Joe Walcott and Rocky Marciano. As she is very devout, however, she spends a lot of her free time with the Marian Congregations, where she gives a talk about the Virgin Mary in November 1952, and in meetings of the Third Order.

Although her work and activities keep her busy, she still finds the separation very difficult. Mariette's letters express the boundless joy she feels whenever a letter from her beloved arrives, though this is unfortunately overshadowed by her seemingly constant feelings of melancholy and solitude. She reveals that she must work hard to maintain her confidence, which is undermined at times by friends and family members who believe she is wasting her youth by pining away. In successive letters, Mariette is seen limiting her social activities, which she does not really enjoy, and making herself lead a quiet life on the outskirts of society. She is pleased that Jérémie is doing the same thing, congratulating him, for example, on attending meetings with the Cercles Lacordaires (the predecessors of Sobriété du Canada), which advocate sobriety and abstinence. The correspondence reveals the great piety that guides the young woman's life and gives meaning to this period of sacrifice, which she sees as a stepping stone to later happiness. On several occasions, she shares her thoughts on the question of marriage and the period of courtship preceding it, which she envisions from a Christian perspective. Her thoughts on the subject are enriched by the books she reads and shares with her beloved, including L'art d'aimer by Marcel Clément, a specialist in Catholic social doctrine. Finally, her letters express the turmoil she experiences when she learns that her sweetheart has decided, after several months of school, to study pharmacy instead, a change of plans she perceives as sudden and unsettling.