Boissonneault Family Blog

Nikki found this picture of Dad while she was looking for pictures for a collage. I thought you guys would like to see it.

Love to you all,
Ray

Laurie found this wonderful tribute to Dad in the York County Coast Star written by Donna Buttarazi who lives here in Arundel and subs at the ML Day School.
This is the article...

January 17, 2008 6:00 AM
Last week Arundel lost one of its most valued and loved citizens. When Norm Boissonneault lost his battle with cancer, our town lost a great, great friend. My conversation the week before with his daughter, Laurie Aportria, one of my favorite teachers at ML Day, must have still been on my mind as I wrote last week's column.

Norm and his wife, Simone, are well-known and well-loved by so very many Arundel residents. Their tireless devotion to the small town they have lived in and raised their family in for many years is really unparalleled. Norm's legacy of kindness, his quick wit, and his vibrant smile will be with us forever. He touched many lives, from the very youngest students at ML Day who benefited from his hard work and pride in keeping that school in shape, to those in need during a crisis when as a fire-rescue volunteer he responded day and night to the calls for help.

While Norm is probably best known for his many years of service on the Arundel Fire-Rescue squad, I know that most recently he left quite a mark on the town's dedicated staff of teachers and our smallest citizens — our schoolchildren. In his retirement, he decided to take on the job of maintenance director at the school, and his presence was felt immediately. Within weeks, all of the little projects that had gone undone for a long time were completed. The classrooms were brighter and cleaner with new shelves, and new coats of paint. Closets were built, new bulletin boards were hung and the pencil sharpeners worked and were firmly screwed to the walls. And every time I asked a teacher, "Hey, where did that come from?" they would say "Oh, Norm did that for me!" He breathed new life into that old building, and proved that with a little elbow grease and upkeep, things can keep right on humming along. We all had faith that if it could be fixed, Norm would do it. He would joke and tease in his quiet manner about all of the chaos that kept him jumping at that school, and then he would go above and beyond in a way that only someone with a big heart, a great work ethic, and a devotion to service could do. We should all be a little more like Norm (and Simone) — thanks for the lessons on how we should live our lives. We will miss you.

30 more days until *she* is expected to arrive! The floors are being laid in the addition and the house is almost complete...finally.