We have all heard of the African proverb that says ''It takes a village to raise a child''. When we think of our aunt Sandra Savage, that proverb is one of the many wonderful memories that come to mind. For nearly 25 years she taugh hundreds of children from St. Lambert at Kiddie’s Korner, the preschool she operated on Simard boulevard and later on Marie-Victorin street. There, they learned how to count, to spell and to write the alphabet and to speak English for many of the toddlers were francophones. She was a great teacher who loved her students and made them happy.
Over the last few years, many former students would stop her in the village to chat, remembering their years at her school. It made her glow with pride to see the fine young adults they had become and that she played a small part in all of it.
Our aunt passed away on the 28th of August. She was only 77. We will miss her dry sens of humour, her crazy ideas to prank her friends, her legendary stubbornness when debating politics and her eagerness to entertain her friends. The village where she was born and grew up, where she loved living and enjoyed daily walks on Victoria street has lost a great woman. We all have.
Sandra did not wish for a funeral ceremony nor did she wish flowers.
She asks people to donate to the SPCA or to the Lion’s Club of St. Lambert, where her mother, Freda Ware Savage, was a founding member.