Foreword:
At Jeanne Jugan Residence, we are incredibly blessed so as to be surrounded by some of the most wonderful, interesting people around. Our Residents share their colorful life stories with us, relinquishing every wonderful detail and leaving us in awe of their vivid lives, filled with strength, faith, and amazing experiences.
Thus, we are introducing a new blog series – Amazing Lives – in which we share with you that which has been shared with us, so as take this spirit of family we have with our Residents and share it with you!
Please note that all of our Amazing Lives blog entries are the written product of interviews and life stories shared voluntarily by our Residents, and that each has viewed the finished product and given clear consent for us to feature their stories on our online blog.
The first entry in our Amazing Lives blog series is the life story of Raymond Chartier, whom we are blessed with having as a Resident in our Home!
Amazing Lives– Raymond Chartier
Resident Ray Chartier was born and raised right here in Rhode Island. Upon completing high school, Ray enlisted in the military service at age 18. He trained to be a cook in the U.S. Army.
But why stop at cooking? When Ray was honorably discharged four years later, he took a wife and began working in home construction.
…But why stop at that? At the age of 35, Ray decided to take his life further – much further – and enrolled in school to earn his degree in vocational education.
“I was lucky to get the opportunity to go back to school,” Ray says, and he chose vocational education so as to go beyond the manual labor he had already mastered and work directly with the new generation of budding builders.
After completing his education, Ray began teaching woodwork to middle school-aged children, and then moved on to teach cabinet making and home construction to high schoolers. He took part in summer projects, building homes from the ground up in Providence with his students. He also volunteered to help rebuild a Catholic school in Rhode Island in 1968. One year, Ray was voted Teacher of the Year.
Even after retiring, Ray continued working in construction for five years. Now he is a member of our Home, where he helps our residents with their maintenance needs. He volunteers his expert workmanship to whoever needs it, no matter the task. It is safe to say that God had truly blessed us when Ray crossed paths with us here at Jeanne Jugan Residence.
Amazing Lives- Raymond Chartier