Family
Wilfrid Laurier married Zoé Lafontaine in Montreal on 13 May 1868. She was the daughter of G.N.R. Lafontaine and his first wife, Zoé Lavinge dit Tessier. Laurier's wife Zoé was born in Montreal and educated there at the School of the Bon Pasteur, and at the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, St. Vincent de Paul. The couple lived at Arthabaskaville until they moved to Ottawa in 1896. She served as one of the Vice-Presidents on the formation of the National Council of Women and was Honorary Vice-President of the Victorian Order of Nurses. The couple had no children. Beginning in 1878 and for some twenty years while married to Zoé, Laurier had an "ambiguous relationship" with a married woman, Émilie Lavergne, with whom he fell in love. Where Zoé loved plants, animals and home life, she was not an intellectual. Émilie was, and relished literature and politics like Wilfrid, whose heart she won. Rumour had it he fathered a son (Armand) with her, yet Zoé remained with him until his death.
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Famous quotes containing the word family:
“At best the family teaches the finest things human beings can learn from one another—generosity and love. But it is also, all too often, where we learn nasty things like hate, rage and shame.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“Our society is not a community, but merely a collection of isolated family units.”
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“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)