Since the 1940s, Sault Ste. Marie’s Lauzon family has been celebrating large annual reunions.
Now, Jocelyne Brazil and members of her kin are planning the 75th Lauzon family reunion, to be held at Glenview Cottages July 8 through July 10.
It will be a bittersweet gathering.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s getting to be too much work to continue doing the reunions, which is why the 75th will be the final annual family reunion,” Brazil told SooToday.
“We may do something five years down the road or something like that, but right now it’s difficult to get everybody to commit to come to the Sault because they (family members) are all over. Some of them are out west or out east, and it’s expensive to come for one weekend.”
Over the years, and through launching a private Facebook group, Brazil and other family members became ‘the glue’ that holds the Lauzon clan together and organized each reunion.
There have been some extraordinary members in the family, several of them involved in sports.
Brazil’s uncle Ed Lauzon coached hockey in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), winning a Memorial Cup in 1948.
He was asked to coach the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens but declined in a great sense of loyalty and consideration for his wife and children.
“He chose not to (coach the Habs). He was in Thunder Bay and didn’t want to move his family around,” Brazil said.
Another uncle - Henri - played with the Soo Greyhounds before moving on to Niagara Falls and then to professional hockey with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL).
Brothers Henri, Ed, Lorenzo and Xyste all participated in lacrosse, while their sisters played softball. Photos and newspaper articles pertaining to the family’s involvement in sports were donated to the Sault Ste. Marie Museum in 2012.
“The love of sports is still alive and well in the Lauzon family today. There’s a very good chance you will find a family member attending or participating in sports,” Brazil said.
George and Aurore Lauzon, Brazil’s grandparents, married in 1906 in New York. They moved to Hull, Que. and in 1917 chose Sault Ste. Marie as their new home.
The couple had 15 children:
- Xyste
- Edouard (Ed)
- Lorenzo
- Henri
- Simone
- Laurette
- Fernande
- Rolande
- Bernadette
- Marie
- Gerard
- Therese
- Jacques
- Emile
- Another child who died shortly after birth
11 of the children survived to adulthood and four passed away when young. Gerard and Jacques died as infants, Bernadette at 12.
The oldest uncle, Xyste (pronounced like ‘exist’), went into the Roman Catholic priesthood.
“He came to the reunions as often as he could,” Brazil said.
“A funny story is, and we always laugh about this, is that we always had a bar set up for the uncles, we would clear the table of the bar, he would set up his altar for the mass, and after he would say ‘okay, mass is over’ so we’d clear the altar and set up the bar again.”
Xyste Lauzon also performed a double wedding ceremony for two of the family’s members in 1947.
While some of the children moved to other communities in their adulthood (such as Espanola, Thunder Bay, Dearborn, Mich. and Hershey, Penn.), most of the Lauzons stayed local and it was decided in 1947 that annual family reunions should be held in the Sault.
Reunions were planned through telephone calls and regular mail in those days.
“My aunts and uncles wanted to get together as much as possible with the kids and keep the cousins knowing each other. I had two aunts, one had a camp out at Leighs Bay, and another aunt had a camp at Gros Cap. They would rotate. One year the reunion would be at Leighs Bay, the other year at Gros Cap. As our parents got older, our generation started taking over and helping organize the reunions and keep them together. We as cousins all knew each other as children and as we got older we wanted to keep up that tradition of being with each other,” Brazil said.
“When those properties got sold off, another cousin of ours started hosting the reunions on St. Joseph Island. We’ve been meeting there for the past 15 or 20 years.”
Highlights of past family reunions included pulling taffy and going from house to house to enjoy French-Canadian meat pie (tourtiere) into the wee hours of the morning after Christmas mass.
Due to COVID-19, family reunions were held via Zoom in 2020 and 2021, Brazil said.
To date, 108 family members are planning to gather at already-booked rooms at Glenview Cottages in July, each hoping the pandemic won’t affect their reunion plans for 2022.
One surviving second generation Lauzon family member - Marg Lauzon - recently celebrated her 94th birthday.
She is currently residing in a local long-term care home and it is the family’s hope she can attend July’s reunion.
Activities planned for the family include a formal welcome ceremony, hiking, games for the children, a sing song around a bonfire, a large barbecue, a family mass and a goodbye lunch at a restaurant.
“What we’re thinking of doing this year, if it’s feasible, is bringing out a food truck (for the barbecue). We’re still in the process of organizing that,” Brazil said.
With July’s reunion to be the last annual such event for the family, Brazil said she is bravely prepared for a lot of emotional goodbye hugs and tears.
“Absolutely,” she chuckled good naturedly.
“The cousins here in the Sault will maybe get together a couple of times a year or meet in Sault, Michigan (with the American side of the Lauzon clan).”
“My family, to me, is everything,” Brazil said.
“Our parents have instilled so much love and caring for one another.”
The family plans to stay in touch through Facebook.
“I think social media is great if it’s used properly,” Brazil said.
“It’s been misused by others but we’ve kept our page private. If it’s used properly it’s a great tool.”