Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Jan 31/00) - Oblate missionary Brother Antoine Vachon, who served the North from Fort Chipewyan to Aklavik, died of stomach cancer on Jan. 18, at the age of 81.

Vachon had retired to Falher, Alta., and later moved to St. Albert, but he dedicated his life to serving the North.

One of Vachon's early posts was in Fort Simpson, where he was told by his Provincial Superior: "At Fort Simpson work will not lack you." Father Michel wrote. "Do your utmost to sanctify yourself by cultivating a strong spirit of faith and a great love for God."

Vachon served in Fort Simpson for 32 years and touched the lives of many of the residents in the Deh Cho.

Bill Laferte called Vachon his friend and spent several hours with him the night before he left Fort Simpson for the last time in 1992.

"I suppose I could say he was one of the finer men I've known in my life," Laferte recalled. "He didn't appear to be a very popular man, but the facts are that he was kind and he thought of everybody."

It is also said he was a hard worker, regularly planting and weeding his garden, tilling the soil, cutting and hauling wood, repairing vehicles, maintaining the house and the yard, cooking and riding his bicycle -- often while smoking a cigarette.

Nick Sibbeston said it wasn't uncommon to see Vachon fixing the chain on children's bicycles. A handyman of sorts, he also fixed the leaky taps at Sibbeston's house.

His earliest recollections of Brother Vachon were those of his boyhood when he and some friends would taunt Vachon and run away.

"I remember he looked after the chicken coop ... I remember shooting at him with a slingshot, bothering his chickens and stealing carrots from his garden, and he would chase us," Sibbeston said, adding that the mission, at that time, was a large, self-sufficient operation in the community. "Eventually when I came back (to Fort Simpson) and had my own family then the relationship changed. He ended up visiting our family quite a bit, and we even used to get him to babysit our kids. He was a very helpful, quiet, gentle kind of man."

According to Laferte, Vachon, who hailed from Quebec and spoke with a thick French accent, was also rather fastidious.

"He was very observant and very meticulous in the way he did things. His gardens had to be just perfect, not a weed to be found," he said.

Laferte remembers him as a take-charge individual as well, especially when it came to his calling.

"Vachon was boss. Anything you wanted to know about the mission, you asked Vachon," said Laferte.

Besides Fort Chipewyan and Aklavik, Vachon also served in Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, and Fort Rae. He celebrated his 50th anniversary of religious profession in Fort Simpson in 1988.

According to the Missionary Oblates' records, Vachon had been asked to consider retirement at that time, but he responded, "As I have spent the greater part of my life in the Northern missions, I would like to stay here for a long time yet."

He spent his last four months hospitalized and passed away at the Royal Alexander Hospital in Edmonton.

Brother Vachon is survived by his brother, Fr. Alphee Vachon of the Missionaries of Africa, his two sisters, Yvette Vachon and Sister Reine Vachon F.M.M.

A mass of the resurrection was presided by Father Camille Piche, OMI at the Connely McKinnley Chapel in St. Albert, Alta., on Jan. 20.