Eleanor Laberee Robertson

A lifelong Quebecer, Eleanor grew up on a pioneer farm in Sand Hill near present day Lennoxville. Her family were original settlers who came to the Eastern Townships in the 1790’s finding only a few dozen farms, forests rather than fields, no towns and no roads. Her family name, Laberee, reaches back to 16th century France when Protestants (Huguenots) were frequently killed, jailed, taxed and expelled by the ruling Catholics. Her family branch moved from France to Switzerland to England to New England before rooting in the Townships, accounting for her French name, Protestant religion and English language.

Eleanor was the first Laberee born in a hospital and among the last Quebecers to go to school by horse drawn sleigh. The family farmhouse had no electricity, no telephone, no plumbing apart from a hand pump for water and one wood stove to warm a Quebec winter. Farm work was done by horsepower and manpower in her girlhood, not much changed from a century before. With her brother Ken for company, she had a farm horse to ride and a social life made around church get togethers and school parties.

Eleanor attended high school in Lennoxville and worked at the Pleasantview Hotel in North Hatley during summers. She maintained close friendships with classmates that lasted into her 80’s. After high school, Eleanor entered nursing training at Montreal General Hospital ward C, graduating an RN in 1952. She saw Montreal’s post-war heyday as Canada’s leading city, and particularly enjoyed dances and big band music.

Eleanor met Lloyd Robertson at high school, he followed her to Montreal to attend Sir George Williams College. They married in 1955. By 1960 they had three children, Rick, Greg and Janice, and had moved to Pointe Claire. She started work at the Lakeshore General Hospital when it opened in 1965 and by 1970 was head nurse on 4 South. She retired in 1993 after a couple of years running the maturnity ward. She made many lifelong friends at the LGH.

Eleanor sadly lost her daughter Janice to lung cancer in 2009.

Eleanor was productive in retirement travelling widely particularly to places where her children were living across Canada and Europe. She took up lawn bowling and volunteered widely joining the Lakeshore General auxiliary during the last 10 years of her life. She is survived by her sons Rick and Greg and grandchildren Kristin and Logan Robertson. We grieve for the loss of her.

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ArrangeROBERTSON, Eleanor1931 - 2014We announce with sadness the passing of our mother Eleanor on September 18, 2014, survived by her two sons Rick and Greg. She died free of pain at the West Island Palliative Care Residence. A Memorial Service will be held at Collins Clarke MacGillivray White Funeral Home, 222 Autoroute 20, Pointe Claire, QC on Saturday, September 27, 2014 at 11 a.m. in the Chapel of the funeral home, followed by a Reception. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/montrealgazette/obituary.aspx?n=eleanor-robertson&pid=172518227&fhid=11436#sthash.jNAPaU2g.dpufments under the direction of Collins Clarke MacGillvray White, Pointe-Claire, Québec.