Every week, columnist and journalist Karine Gagnon invites you to a major interview with a notable personality from the Capitale-Nationale.
There are some impressive people who manage to transform the trials of life into little wonders, and that is exactly what Sandra Lambert accomplished by founding, after the death of her multi-handicapped daughter, the community organization Laura Lémerveil.
The idea of meeting Sandra Lambert came to me from a reader who was able to benefit from the services she set up, but also from her generosity. “I don’t know how to tell you how much more difficult my life would have been if it hadn’t been for meeting Sandra,” this parent of a disabled child, now an adult, wrote to me.
Mme Lambert and “her fantastic team”, as she is keen to emphasize, are based on an innovative approach which ensures that young people with multiple disabilities also have the right, the capacity and the desire to achieve every day of their lives.
His initiative, spread across six service points that care for 220 children in the greater Quebec City region, earned him two distinctions this year. The Governor General of Canada awarded him the Meritorious Service Medal last May. This summer, she also received a medal from the City of Quebec, given to exceptional people to highlight their contribution to the community.
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Since 2008, Laura Lémerveil has accompanied and supported young people with multiple disabilities and their families. The organization uses an approach based on wonder, discovery and learning.
Everything is inspired by M’s own experience.me Lambert, with her daughter Laura. She quickly noticed the lack of services for these children and their families.
Photo provided by Sandra Lambert
Teaching vocation
Sandra Lambert began her career as a secondary school teacher. At the age of 25, she became pregnant, a little surprise in life. Her pregnancy, a period that she loved, was perfect. She dreamed of having four children since she was young.
Laura was born and it was only a few weeks later that the mother realized something was wrong. “It’s a very specific memory where I have Laura in my arms, I rock her in the evening, and I try to enter into her gaze […] I said to myself: let’s see, it looks like there is a veil…”
Photo provided by Sandra Lambert
The young mother had expressed her observations to relatives, who tried to reassure her. “They told me that maybe I was tired after giving birth, that I had blues. But I was 25 years old, I was on fire, but I remained with this doubt. I asked her: Laura, what’s wrong with you?
A few weeks later, the baby exhibited behaviors that resembled seizures. “We went to consult.”
Several “don’ts”
In addition to their daughter being diagnosed with epilepsy, the new parents learned that her brain functions were severely impaired. Laura had somehow won the “not to” lottery, as Sandra Lambert puts it: she would not be able to speak, nor hear, nor walk, in particular.
As for the epileptic episodes, they threatened his life at all times. His life expectancy would only be two or three years, he was told.
Photo provided by Sandra Lambert
Nothing explained his condition, even if only genetically or otherwise. Obviously, it was a terrible shock.
But once the anger passed, Sandra Lambert got up and tried to go and meet her child.
“In my deep values, I need to have meaning, I am curious, I need to understand and have pleasure in life, so I said: if I ask Laura to come to my universe is clearly filled with “not” so, while waiting for his death – because we cannot wait for his death without doing anything – I tried to go and see [où elle était].»
Photo provided by Sandra Lambert
She spent a lot of time observing him on the ground and researching his condition. She also traveled to Philadelphia, after hearing about an approach developed there.
Domino of little sparks
In her quest, Sandra Lambert gathered the different pieces collected and adapted her approach according to Laura, always with the aim of meeting her. His immediate family, parents, sister and goddaughter also contributed.
Different equipment has been installed in the house to allow the little one to evolve. Small sparks occurred and had a domino effect.
Laura began crawling, something she should never have been able to do, and even crawling. She was able to communicate with certain gestures that represented words. “A life with a certain normality has set in […]explains Mme Lambert. We weren’t in the performance, it was more about seeing her evolve at her own pace, seeing her happy, that’s what we want as a mother in life.”
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Laura lived 12 years, something no expert could have predicted. “I think that my daughter had a vocation, a mission, to make life wonderful while at the first level, that was not at all what was announced,” relates Sandra Lambert.
After a very difficult period, Mme Lambert was driven by this mission which consisted of founding Laura Lémerveil.
These children with multiple disabilities, she mentions, have a lot of extrasensory abilities that we don’t have. With a lot of work and rigor, with a loving team that opens doors in front of them, the possibilities are incredible.
“They take us on a path in the present moment, of recognition, of tolerance, of courage. They are great teachers. It was also part of my impulse to say that, for me, the death of my daughter was not a deliverance.
Not to be missed, Wednesday evening at 8:30 p.m. on MAtv (channel 9 (Hélix et illico), 609HD (illico)), the show Karine’s Notebook about Sandra Lambert.
