People we meet: A hard day's work....at 94 years of age

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Lower Wedgeport, Yarmouth County resident Sam Doucette (no one calls him by his real name, Anselm) gets up at the crack of dawn each day.

By 7 a.m. he’s in his work shed where he may spend the day building cabinets for his family. Later he might be working in his garden. Like his father before him, Doucette believes in a hard day’s work. He’s told his family hard work doesn’t kill you.

It appears to have done wonders for Doucette, who turns 94 years old on Tuesday, July 22. According to his family, he’s the oldest male living in the village of Wedgeport.

Married for 63 years when his wife Patronille died in 2005, it’s been 34 years since this former lobster fisherman retired from the water. But leaving behind his job hasn’t slowed him down any. “His father used to say what you can do today, you don’t wait until tomorrow to do, and our dad says that all the time,” says one of Doucette’s daughters, Gloria Jacquard, who says people in Wedgeport are quite impressed by how active Doucette still is, considering his age. “The people in the community praise him,” she says.

And the women in church are always commenting on how spiffy he looks, Jacquard laughs. He’s even had a few marriage proposals. Not real ones, of course, but people are impressed by the fact Doucette can still take good care of himself. His daughter Monica Boudreau says he cooks his own meals, makes his bed, washes his dishes, and enjoys traveling. He’ll wash his own clothes if no one else is around and he’ll hang hers on the clothesline if he has nothing better to do at the time. “He’s in the work shed at seven o’clock,” she says with a hint of astonishment. “He comes in for a snack later and I’m just getting up. By then he’s already done a half day’s work.”

Doucette doesn’t have any major health issues, although he did go through his fair share in his younger years. A bad back, a gall bladder operation, a broken arm as the result of a wood hauler mishap. He even had triple bypass heart surgery on his 78th birthday.

Yet like a fine wine, he seems to improve with age, his daughters say, except that his hearing isn’t what it used to be. But his family has inherited Doucette’s sense of humour. So when they say something, and he doesn’t answer…. “We’ll say what’s wrong? Are you deaf?” Boudreau says.

That always gets a big laugh from everyone, especially her father, who on the day of this interview didn’t really get the big fuss being made over him. He graciously (albeit a little bit reluctantly) posed for photos in his work shed, and then joked with this reporter, “Don’t eat my peas,” as we headed out to see his garden. (So much for trying to sneak one when he wasn’t looking.)

A family barbecue – where Doucette will be joined by his other children Elizabeth Boudreau and Gilles Doucette, along with grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family members – will mark this particular birthday.

Asked what he thought about his upcoming transition into his 94th year, Doucette said through a smile, “I like my birthday, but I don’t like the age.”

But you’re only as old as you feel, or in Sam Doucette’s case, as young.