Here is an update and advice from Ghisèle Maurice. Ghisèle has been working to make Le Villagois in LaFountaine, ON a reality for over 10 years. The idea is simple: provide a francophone retirement home in town so that elders aren’t forced to leave the community when they retire.

Of course, making the idea a reality has been a lot more challenging. Planning started over 10 years ago, they broke ground in 2007, and open their doors in 2009 – right in the midst of the biggest recession since the 1930s.

But they have persevered. Now, there is a beautiful facility in the village and most of the units are sold. Now there’s just the pesky business of mortgages and money.

Here is Ghisèle’s update and advice for everyone who wants to accomplish something BIG:

“The superior man (woman) makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest, success only comes later.” Confucius.

I’m reminding myself of this saying often these days in my work with Le Villageois. In other words, I’m concentrating on the difficulty in front of me at the moment and I try to overcome that one difficulty before going on to the next.

Things are moving very fast at Le Villageois. We’re working on three levels of government in order to get our mortgage, with the help of a fourth, the Office of Francophone Affairs. There are hurdles to be overcome, conditions to meet and opposition from certain members, as ever.

But we’re moving ahead and there is a light at the end of the tunnel; it is very encouraging that our local Community Futures Development Corporation have agreed to postpone loan payments for the months of February, March, April and May 2012, as well as the accrual of the interest and they will consider lowering the interest rate on the loan and will also postpone the repayment of the legal fees. That’s a really big plus for us as this is a local corporation and it gives the message to our government partners that we have solid backing.

All this to say “Never Give Up”!

Love,

Ghisèle