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My Mother Passes

Denis Ledoux — Sun, 11 May 2025 14:37:09 +0000

On this blog, I have frequently offered excerpts of my mother’s memoir, We Were Not Spoiled. It has been such a satisfaction for me to have written her story and to have been able to hand her a copy. One day, after I had presented her with the hard copy of We Were Not Spoiled, […]

Writing Another Person’s Memoir: Can you use the first person pronoun?

Denis Ledoux — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:17:23 +0000

Shouldn’t writing another person’s memoir be called writing biography rather than writing memoir? You the writer are, after all, not the subject. Doesn’t that make it a biography? But, are there occasions when a biography can justly be called a memoir? In one of my books, A Sugary Frosting / Life in a 1960s Parsonage, […]

Writing An Old Family Story

Denis Ledoux — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 11:01:00 +0000

I was one of those fortunate children to have known well both sets of grandparents. My Ledoux grandparents lived upstairs for most of my growing up while by Verreault grandparents lived 10 miles away. Because of this, I’ll admit writing an old family story is somewhat easy for me as I heard so many of […]

My Mother’s Memoir: Making a Home at the Howe Street Apartment

Lucille Ledoux — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 12:00:00 +0000

When my parents came down, they lived in a tenement on Lisbon Street. My father worked at Dulac’s which was nearby, and while the mills were by their tenement, my mother did not seek outside work but kept house. (more…)

Writing a biography: First Franco: Albert Beliveau

Douglas Rooks — Tue, 25 May 2021 16:38:00 +0000

Writing a biography poses specific challenges and research problems that are sometimes parallel to, but in the end quite different from, those involved in memoir and historical fiction. (more…)

Becoming an American—Why Not?

Lucille Ledoux — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 11:08:00 +0000

DL— Stories about immigration and citizenship form the backbone of our great American story as much today as in past times. My ancestors were among the millions who came here in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here is an excerpt about becoming an American from We Were Not Spoiled, the memoir of my mother […]

Going Up in Flames: My Dream Shop Was Burning to the Ground!

Robert Verreault — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:42:00 +0000

This excerpt is from Business Boy to Business Man, the memoir of Robert Verreault as told to Denis Ledoux. The memoir was published in 2013. During the summer, I took a longer supper break and, after returning to the shop — where I had over a hundred and fifty employees — I might stay until […]

Crossing the Pacific to Reach the World War 2 Theater

Robert Verreault — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 16:30:49 +0000

This excerpt is from Business Boy to Business Man, the memoir of Robert Verreault as told to Denis Ledoux. The memoir was published in 2013. The military would never tell servicemen where we were going during World War 2, but it was a fairly easy bet that we were headed for Hawaii as a first […]

My Son Denis Is Born

Lucille Ledoux — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 10:55:39 +0000

My second pregnancy was also easy enough. This time Albert was with me, and he and I could live it together. My mother had had most of her babies at home, but by the mid-1940s, women were… (more…)

No Smile on my Face

Lucille Ledoux — Fri, 05 May 2017 10:15:05 +0000

Dr. Morin would say that my mother had not put a smile on my face when she carried me, but I think it was because, as the oldest, I was made to be a too-serious child. (more…)