Laurent R. Brillant

It’s with a huge heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dearly beloved father, grandfather, great grandfather, uncle and friend. The angels from heaven came and got him early Sunday morning. The last 3 weeks and 3 days of his life was a very special and precious blessing given to him and his daughter Ann Marie when he moved in with her and her husband Jerry. He was spoiled in every possible way from eating his favorite foods, watching a couple of Johnny Cash concerts (his favorite all time singer), enjoying the company of 2 dogs who he loved as they were always with him and he got a kick out of it as he was a huge animal lover, enjoying being outside on the patio rocking in his chair with his daughter alongside rocking with him reminiscing and laughing, right down to his “unknown” last day where he enjoyed an outside BBQ with the additional company of great grandson Ben and his wife Celeste, granddaughter Amanda and her husband Ben eating one of his favorite foods red hot dogs on a beautiful sunny day surround by family and love.

He was born in Topsham to Elzeard and Josephine Brillant on 10/30/1922 stating he was almost a Halloween baby. He grew up in Topsham in a house his Dad built and was the youngest of 11 children having 7 brothers and 3 sisters. He was often referred to by siblings as the baby of the family because he was the last one born which he got a kick out of because he was the tallest, biggest, and had the most hair which he was proud of. His father passed away when Larry was only 4 years old but he remembered him well and loved him. He was the last immediate family member.

Larry lived an amazing life and he was a brilliant man so his last name fit him perfectly. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t make either with metal since he was a machinist or with wood which was his hobby from building his first house, to making a grandfather clock from scratch, cannons, civil war guns left handed and right, furniture, doll house, jewelry boxes, anything. Family was important to Larry and he absolutely loved it when family called, visited or got together. He is known to be a very kind, gentle, mild mannered, funny, sweet, considerate, helpful, well liked, easy going, amazing, loving man.

Being 97, he had many interesting stories of the past which we enjoyed and appreciated like milk being delivered to the homes, roads in winter plowed by horses using logs, ice cut from the clean river stored in ice houses with hay to use for iceboxes, the great depression and its effects, he and his friends swimming in the clean river, he and his buddies getting a free haircut called a coco and them all sitting in the church pew together, pulling a prank with his friends by building a boat to capsize it and swim underneath it in the river just in time for when the workers came out of Cabot Mill and thought someone was drowning, skating on the river in the winter-there’s so many more wonderful stories.

As a child without a father, he picked blueberries, delivered newspapers, and delivered milk then went to work at Cabot Mill only to give his pay to his Mom to help with bills. During World War II and the Great Depression, President Franklin D Roosevelt created a work relief program to give young unemployed men employment called the CCC: Civil Conservation Camps which Larry joined at age 17 and was so proud to be a part of and helped build Sebago Lake Park and made the coffee for his troop using water from Sebago Lake as he made the best coffee. When the program ended for him, Larry went to work at BIW as a ship fitter crawling into tight places. Sometimes he would pump air to a diver who was under water welding the ship as they didn’t have air tanks back then. After work, sometimes on pay day, he and his buddies would go to the beer joint to get a glass of beer. He got himself a 1935 Harley Davidson Knucklehead and enjoyed riding all over Maine and Canada with his buddies.

Larry built his own house in Topsham and in 1945 met the love of his life Cecile Guay. They married in 1946 and moved into the house. They were married for 55 years until she passed in 2002. He never dated afterwards. He lived alone with his cat Minn. After marriage, he worked as a loom fixer and weaver in the mills for a few years then they moved to California where he got a government job at Rocketdyne. No one at the time knew what they were working on because it was top secret but he worked on turbo thrust pumps and later learned they were used to lift the Apollo that went to the moon. He, his wife, and other employees and their families got to watch them test the rockets in the desert from a huge hole. Although they stood a good distance away behind a fence, when the rocket lifted, Larry said the powerful force still pushed them back.

He self-taught himself to read blue prints and made a good living as a machinist. They moved back to Maine in 1960. He was very proud to do government work so he continued on at Amitech, Portland Copper Engineering, Nichols, then Sylvania. They bought their home in 1966 on Sixth Street in New Auburn and raised their 2 girls. He lived there alone in his house until almost age 97 and then went to live at Clover Assisted Living in his own apartment until May 21 when he moved in with Ann Marie. When asked how have you made it to live this long? He’d reply “I didn’t abuse my body”. He didn’t smoke, drink, nor eat fat and he exercised by golfing, riding his bike and working in the yard.

He is survived by daughters Ann Marie Perkins and her husband Jerome “Jerry”, Michelle Doyon and her husband Raymond, 4 grandchildren: Shaun Sturgis and his fiancée Katie Sardella, Amanda Splude and her Husband Ben, Donnie Hamel and companion Tammy Turcotte, Craig Hamel, and 9 great grandchildren: Benjamin Marquis and his wife Celeste, Natalie and Owen Hamel, Chase Joler, Jacob, Tyler, Elijah, Jazzlynn, and Lillyona Hamel, and Gabriella Sturgis, along with many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his beloved first grandchild Corey Laurent Sturgis who was named after him and passed away in 2004. They were extremely close. Larry was the last one to pass in his immediate family.

We are so very proud of you and miss you tremendously. Love you—always and forever. Until we meet again… A special thank you goes out to Tammy Turcotte RN at St Mary’s ED for her amazing compassionate caring way, Beacon Hospice Kayla, Beth and Chaplin Phil, and Nan Boucher ANP at SMMA for your caring, kind, compassionate help and guidance.