This is a story of immigration, one not of thousands of miles away or that crosses multiple time zones, but one relatively nearby, in fact only a few hundred miles. Diane Gagnon came to the United States nearly fifty years ago from our neighbor to the north, Canada, specifically Quebec. Many residents of Hampton can trace their past to ancestors from Quebec, the writer of this article included, but for most of us the connection is from a more distant past, perhaps even many generations; this sometimes makes us forget the challenges faced by our ancestors. Although the journey may have been short in distance, culturally, and from a language standpoint, it was far away.
Diane’s journey to Hampton actually begins in the 1930’s with her father, Joseph Gagnon, whose family resided in Sainte-Georges, Quebec for generations. At that time, her father was recruited by a U.S. logging company to work in nearby Jackman, Maine as a lumberjack. Lying about his age – he was only 14 years old at the time – he started work. Although the work was hard and required months away from home, this job allowed him to obtain a green card to legally work in the U.S. With his green card in hand, he continued to work other jobs nearby in the U.S. and to return home on weekends. In 1965, while working in the Hartford area doing construction, he decided that the rigors of working away from home and returning on weekends was too much; so, he applied for residence in the U.S. for himself and his family. In the summer of 1967 residency was approved and the entire Gagnon family – mother, father and eight children – moved to Hartford.
Diane and her family moved to a French-Canadian community in the Park and Broad Street area of Hartford. Here a 13-year-old began the process of learning a new language and culture. For those old enough to recall, the late 1960’s was a volatile period in many cities centering on the war and civil rights. Hartford was no exception, experiencing unrest in the African American community. The Hartford riots of the summer of 1967 may not have achieved the notoriety of those in Detroit or Newark, but nonetheless, they put the city on edge with an atmosphere of unrest that lasted through 1969. At times this even resulted in the establishment of curfews. And during this period of social tension, Diane had to choose where to go to school: the local Catholic school that most French-Canadian children attended, which would provide a gentler transition to a new language and culture; or a public school. Diane’s parents, especially her mother, was set on the Catholic school, but Diane wanted to go to public school and after much debate, Diane got her way and her parents’ permission to attend public school.
The public high school for the area Diane lived in was Hartford Public High School, where the students were predominately African American and Hispanic. At HPHS she began the process of learning English and immersing herself into a new culture. Many of her new friends were African American and Hispanic, sometimes to the dislike of the French-Canadian neighbors at home. She quickly learned English and was approved to attend regular classes after only three months in the English as a Second Language program. Also while in high school, she attended evening classes at a culinary school with one of her brothers. This extra effort is a common experience of many immigrants that want to succeed in their new home. This training also would become an asset later in her life.
The 1970’s for Diane was a time of new beginnings as a young adult, but also one of great loss. In 1972, her father passed away at the age of 59, and in 1974 her mother passed away at a very young 44 years of age. She would also make a brief one year return to Quebec. In 1975 she returned to the U.S. and has remained here ever since, eventually becoming a citizen in 2008.
In 1982 Diane began work at the International Red Cross, where she worked on various contracted projects in Connecticut that included drug testing and bone marrow transplant donor work, where she would not only have chance encounters of meeting a celebrity, but one of a more notorious variety. Called on to assist with a client in Greenwich, she would meet his brother, none other than John Gotti. Although the encounter was brief she does recall that he was very gracious and provided the workers with meals at a local restaurant. Certainly, “an offer you can’t refuse!”
By the 1990’s Diane would be residing in Harwinton in Litchfield County and working for the Housing and Urban Development Agency where she managed a nine-person crew that would clean, repair and sell homes. Her assigned location in the state was along the Route 6 corridor in eastern Connecticut. It was during this time that Diane’s actual “Coming to Hampton” occurred. Tired of the long commute from Harwinton she saw a property on Route 6 in Hampton that she would rent in 1998 and subsequently purchase in 1999. Permanently settled in Hampton she would reach back and use her early culinary training to cook for the 4-H Camp in Pomfret and eventually at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.
Now retired Diane dedicates all her energy to volunteer community work. She is certainly one of a small cadre of individuals in Hampton that can be called upon on a moment’s notice to work at a town event or help a local resident. She sits on two Town commissions, the Inland Wetlands and the Conservation, and is on the Board of Directors of The Hampton Gazette. Still using her early culinary training, she cooks for the Town’s monthly Seniors lunch and the annual Memorial Day Barbeque.
“I love Hampton and the many people I know here; I consider many of them my family”, she says. Diane, many of us feel the same.
Peter Witkowski