Fabienne Côté died on October 20, 2021 at St. Teresa’s Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, surrounded by husband and her children, who were singing to her as she drew her final breath.
Born in the village of Saint Philibert, Quebec, on April 27, 1928 to Eddie Brochu and Georgiana Groleau. Fabienne was the middle child of five, the oldest and youngest, adopted siblings. She had happy memories of growing up on a subsistence farm, with no electricity until age 18; doing homework by oil lamp until her formal education ended with the completion of the eighth grade; walking to church each morning to sing the Mass, picking wild strawberries in the fields around her home; calling sheep by name and watching them run to her; playing piano and accordion at family sing-a-longs, to name a few.
In 1956 she married Richard H. Côté, a native of Beaumont, Quebec who had emigrated to Vergennes, Vermont. They met as pen pals, when he responded to her ad in L’action Catholique. They fell in love over a nine-month correspondence. The fifth time they saw each other in person was their wedding day.
Over the next 65 years they built a wonderful life together and raised five children. They left Vermont after Richard’s family sold their dairy farm and travelled to Massena, New York, then Niagara Falls, New York, where he found work on the Saint Lawrence Seaway and Niagara Falls Dam before settling in New Hampshire where Richard became a long-distance truck driver. Many a wintry night, when her husband was on the road, Fabienne would gather their five children to kneel and say the rosary for his safe return home. Family vacations were annual visits to Saint Philibert to visit french-speaking family and friends. It was important to Fabienne that all of her children become fluent in their French heritage and language.
Fabienne worked as a homemaker. She was an expert seamstress who took great pride in her craftsmanship. She meticulously sewed wedding dresses for each of her three daughters and her first daughter-in-law, and later took much joy in sewing for her grandchildren. She also made porcelain dolls and dressed them as Christmas gifts for her granddaughters. Her grandchildren remember years of summer fun in the pool and barbecues at “grand-maman’s house.”
Fabienne and her family attended St. Thomas Aquinas church in Derry where she made many close friends. She especially enjoyed working the annual Christmas Fair, donating many sewed items and oil paintings, another one of her creative passions.
In 1999 she was invited to represent New Hampshire’s Franco-American Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. She subsequently hosted several house parties at her home in Londonderry, bringing together her new musician friends to play Irish, Scottish and French folk music.
In 2004, Fabienne and Richard moved to Auburn, NH, where they had since lived. In 2006, fifty years after emigrating to the United States, she became a naturalized citizen in order that she might at last vote.
Fabienne was predeceased by her parents and three of four siblings as well as her first-born child, Michel, who died at birth. She is survived by her husband, their five children: Anne (Kevin McManus) of Bow, Monica Côté (Fred Hogan) of Penacook, Irene (James Côté-Wurzler) of Shelburne, Vermont; Alan (Carrie Rouleau Côté) of Auburn, and Rick (Susan Tomlinson Côté) of Williston, Vermont, fourteen grandchildren: Alan McManus (Holly), Sean McManus (Allison), Audrey McManus Hubbell (Nick), Patrick McManus, Julia McGrath (Patrick), Eric Côté-Porter, James Wurzler, Michael Côté-Wurzler, Colin Côté Jennsen (Mary Beth), Patrick Côté-Wurzler (Laura), Matthew Côté-Wurzler, Anna Côté-Wurzler, Jacqueline Duane (Greg), and Nathan Côté (Amy), as well as fifteen great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Saint Peter Parish, 567 Manchester Rd., Auburn, NH on Monday, October 25th at 11:00am. Masks will be provided at the entrance of the church. To protect Fabienne’s unvaccinated great-grandchildren, friends and extended family who have not been vaccinated are encouraged to only attend the Graveside services which will follow in the Forest Hill Cemetery, East Derry, NH at 12:15pm.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in her memory to St. Teresa’s Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, 519 Bridge Street, Manchester, NH 03104. The family would like to thank the staff at St. Teresa’s for their loving care of Fabienne.
The Peabody Funeral Homes and Crematorium of Derry is assisting the family with arrangements.