Aline Grondin True

Aline Grondin True passed away on March 3rd, 2021 at the age of 95 years. She was the wife of Wes True of Port Charlotte, Florida. Born at Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada in 1925, she was the daughter of the late Marguerite (née Martin) and late Jean “Johnny” Grondin.

Aline was one of fourteen children that made up Maggie and Johnny Grondin’s French-Canadian family. During her teen years, she was educated by Roman Catholic nuns and in 1943, at the age of 18, Aline entered the convent. Her order was the Religious Hospitallers of St-Joseph located in Saint-Basile, New Brunswick, Canada. Her convent was a hospital and she worked as a nurse. In the early 1950s, Aline contracted tuberculosis and was treated at the Saint-Basile Sanitarium, a medical facility built by her order exclusively for the care of tuberculosis patients.

In 1956, after serving thirteen years as a nun, she decided to leave the convent. During a meeting with her local Catholic Bishop, Aline said that he gave her the best advice of her life. The Bishop said, “once you are out of the convent, leave the area, move as far away as you can otherwise you will have to live with the stigma of forever being that woman who left the convent”.

She returned home to live with her mother for a short time and then moved to Van Buren, Maine and not long after that, she moved to Norwalk, Connecticut where she worked as a vocational nurse at the Norwalk hospital. At that time, Aline spoke very little English and people thought she was shy because she rarely spoke. As time progressed, she became more fluent in English and she spoke more which allowed people to discover her warm and loving personality.

Aline lived the life of a modest single woman for more than a decade until she met her husband Wes True in 1967. Their courtship was short-lived and they were married in 1968. From Connecticut, they moved to New York and then on to Vicksburg, Mississippi where they lived for more than 20 years. After Wes retired, they relocated to Florida.

Aline and Wes didn’t have any children but they had more than 70 nieces and nephews from Aline’s side of the family. She was reunited with many of them and with her siblings every couple of years when she and Wes travelled to her hometown in Canada.

She loved to play cards and in latter years, played cribbage with Wes almost every afternoon.

As she got older, her health began to deteriorate and she developed dementia and suffered from osteoporosis. Despite these health conditions, she still travelled on occasion and Wes took care of her at home. Her death was unexpected. She was a devout Catholic her entire life.

Aline is survived by her husband Wes True, her brother Maurice Grondin of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, her sister Rita Beaulieu of Montreal and numerous nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her brothers and sisters Romeo “Tony” Grondin, Rodolphe “Rudy” Grondin, Robert Grondin, Oneil “Pit” Grondin, Norman “Pitou” Grondin, Clara Durepos, Lorette Clavette, Irene Moran, Emma Lajoie, Rachel Desjardins and Lucille Cyr Taddeo.