MNA mulls future after husband’s death
Mourning her husband who died a month ago, Marguerite Blais, the MNA for St-Henri—SteAnne for the last eight years, hasn’t excluded leaving politics at the end of this parliamentary session in May. But she told reporters on Tuesday she was happy to be back at the National Assembly.
“It’s not correct to be sitting in front of the television all day long. I’m too young for that. I have to keep going if I want to live,” the 64-year-old Blais said.
During her time as Quebec’s first minister responsible for seniors, between 2007 and 2012, the government set up a fund to aid seniors’ home caregivers. Last August, she suddenly became a caregiver to her husband of 35 years, Jean-Guy Faucher, after he was found to have glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumour.
“Living with somebody who is going to die, for me it was the best trip of my life,” she said. “I had a chance to kiss him and he died almost in my arms.”
She returned to work two weeks after he died. Blais added that she was touched by the letters of sympathy she received and the 350 people who attended Faucher’s funeral at Saint-Charles Church.