Centre d’hébergement Alfred-desrochers
Montreal Residents 130 Infected residents 59 Deaths N/A Infected staff N/A Staff deaths N/A
Solange Arsenault April 6, 1949-March 28, 2020
Solange Arsenault grew up on the remote shores of the Gaspésie region of Quebec, and her love of the land would never leave her. Her first home was near the Bonaventure River, where her father worked as a salmon fishing guide.
Arsenault became a wellknown singer and poet, performing at music festivals and concert venues in Quebec and France for 12 years, her songs evoking the land and people of the Gaspésie. She studied literature, obtained her PHD, and taught at the CEGEP Gérald-godin on Montreal’s West Island.
“She was an artist and an intellectual, a very warm person,” said her partner, Anne Kettenbeil. “She was brilliant, but never boastful. I don’t think I ever heard her use her doctorate title once. She was a real Gaspésienne.”
They met “on a mountaintop in the middle of nowhere” near La Tuque, and stayed together for 35 years.
Arsenault got Parkinson’s disease in her 50s and had to give up teaching, but still composed art. Two years ago she moved to a government-run nursing home, the Centre d’hébergement Alfred-desrochers because her disease had progressed. But she was still strong — she bounced back from a bout of pneumonia last year within days.
Arsenault’s caregivers were excellent, said Kettenbeil, who stayed by her partner’s side for her last four days. But the government’s preparedness was not. Kettenbeil said she witnessed a “flagrant” lack of preventive and containment measures at the centre, insufficient staff forced to work without protective equipment or proper training. Nearly half of the centre’s 130 residents have since tested positive.
“In the end, it’s the residents and the people who take care of them that are paying the price,” said Kettenbeil, who is advocating for better care and an investigation into Quebec’s handling of the crisis at its longterm care centres.
Arsenault died on March 28. She was 70 years old.