The year Janette | The Press

Quebec has often had a complicated relationship with its aging stars.

The discontent within the Parti Québécois pushed René Lévesque to leave the party he had founded and retire. However, he was only 62 years old. Guy Lafleur, the greatest hockey player of his time and the idol of a people, bowed out at 33 because his coach no longer wanted him on the team. He even lost his position as team ambassador after a salary dispute with president Ronald Corey.

One woman, however, seems to have escaped this form of ageism that occurs when people or organizations grow tired of someone. As with Lafleur and Lévesque, Quebecers have gotten into the habit of simply calling her by her first name, Janette.

Janette Bertrand has entered her hundredth year and all of Quebec is celebrating with her. The festivities began in September with the inauguration of a mosaic mural representing his portrait on Ontario Street. On October 22 his most recent book appeared, A hundred years of love, whose sales already exceed 60,000 copies.

A month later, Libre Expression reissued Janette’s recipes, published for the first time in 1968. The Book Fair awarded the very first Janette-Bertrand Literary Prize, intended to honor the work of the great lady.

It’s not over, spring, Live from the universe will devote a program to him. Prepare your tissues. And the Théâtre Duceppe will present, in April, Janette, a play about his life in which Guylaine Tremblay will play the title role. Rebelote for handkerchiefs.

A centennial committee, set up by its agent Jacques K. Primeau, ensures the smooth running of the celebrations of the woman who will be 100 years old on March 25. Four press officers work there. Janette Bertrand was on the cover of magazines Turn et Good age, but also Véro Magazine andElle Quebec. “There is not one media outlet that said no,” specifies Mr. Primeau. “Janette,” he explains, “did thirty to forty interviews. And there is only one that was canceled due to health and it was the journalist who was sick. »

The one who supports Janette on a daily basis is her editor, Johanne Guay. While she directed the Libre Expression editions, she published, in 2004, My life in three actsa monster success.

As you get older, many things become more difficult. I asked Johanne Guay how one can still write at 99 years old. “I have the chance to meet and support an author in her 100^e year. It’s exceptional. » The editor insists. “I don’t write for her, not even a paragraph. I correct. Cleaning up a twenty-page text can take me two hours because she repeats things and sometimes has difficulty with the keyboard because of her osteoarthritis. She simply needs kindness around her so that it comes out the way she wants. »

Johanne Guay, 68, retired from the Librex Group three years ago. She now watches over Janette and her work. “I discuss with her what she means, or how she sees things. I challenge her, but gently. She has her vision of the world and her books represent it. »

The impressive popularity of Janette Bertrand was in evidence at the last Montreal Book Fair. A large crowd waited for hours to see her, to say a word to her. There were so many people that the line had to be cut.

“We must protect her. If we let her, she’ll sign for eight hours non-stop, even with her hands hurting. She does not want to disappoint her readers. »

At 99 years old, Janette Bertrand still has things to say and that is reassuring. She continues to read every day. She is a modern woman, concerned about social issues and the evolution of the society in which she lives.

If his audience remains mainly female, there were many men in his line at the Book Fair. “There were three firefighters who came to see her. They thanked her for changing them as men. They took photos saying they were for their mothers,” the editor underlines, smiling.

In this year of Janette’s centenary, while Quebec is celebrating her, Johanne Guay is sorry that the book industry is still shunning her. “Booksellers are happy to sell his books, but the literary world does not fully recognize the quality of his work. I don’t understand why he ignores literature that reaches such a wide audience, true popular literature. At its most beautiful. »

Will Janette publish a new book? Her editor says that she will see with her what she feels like writing. As for Janette, she spent the holidays with family. She cooked, as always. Life as she likes it. So well surrounded, it’s a great year ahead. Why not a new title from Janette?