Death of Kim Yaroshevskaya: she perpetuates the legacy of Fanfreluche near Quebec

Despite the death of actress Kim Yaroshevskaya, her legacy is still very much alive, as evidenced by the initiative of a retired teacher who is inspired by her character Fanfreluche to bring joy to toddlers in a daycare near Quebec.

• Also read: Fanfreluche and Grand-Mère in “Passe-Partout”: actress Kim Yaroshevskaya dies at 101

Once a month, Lucie Mercier goes to the small Vision school, in Lac-Beauport, to present “therapeutic tales” of her own to children aged 18 months to 4 years old.

The one who taught special education at college for 19 years arrives in the guise of “Grandma Lulu” with her colorful dress, her treasure chest, her electronic keyboard, her song and her big book.

Riveted to his words and the watercolors made by his partner, the children let themselves be carried away by his stories evoking self-esteem, a sense of responsibility, difference, affirmation and even respect.

Success

According to the daycare director, Véronik Laperrière, the visits of this endearing, loving and protective “grandmother” have been a real success for three years.

The children ask for more: “They love it, even the parents will use its presence to motivate them in the morning to come to daycare,” she says, while praising the introduction to reading that this activity allows.

For Lucie Mercier, it all started with the workshops she gave in her classes at Cégep de Sainte-Foy. She taught the notion of a therapeutic story, a story attached to a moral used as an intervention strategy.

The birth of her character of “grandma Lulu”, taken from the name already given to her by her grandson, occurred later, when her former student Véronik Laperrière invited her to come and recite it in her daycare.

An idol

If “grandma Lulu” is not intended to be an imitation of Fanfreluche, the latter is a source of inspiration, specifies M^me Mercier.

“This Fanfreluche had a freshness in the way she addressed young people. I often say that she didn’t get ahead of young people. On the contrary, she put herself at their level,” says the 66-year-old woman with boundless creativity.

“She spoke to us on television, as if we were next to her. We had the impression of being understood, of being listened to, of participating in his show,” she explains.

As for many Quebecers, Fanfreluche was a “youthful idol” for her. The death of her interpreter, at the venerable age of 101, touched her greatly.

But deep down, “she’s not really dead, Fanfreluche, because she’s still in our hearts, she’s still in our heads,” she philosophizes.

A visionary

Decades after the beginnings of Fanfreluche, it is clear that her approach has lost none of its relevance, according to her.

Lucie Mercier also learns from her experience that it is important to pursue your dreams, even in retirement. This is a bit of what she does today, because when she was very young, she dreamed of “playing on television” like her idol.

“I give myself a gift every time I go there,” she says.

“Today, with digital tablets and all that, we have a lot of animated interactive books […]. Grandma Lulu, she takes us out of this straitjacket, out of this digital universe,” underlines Véronik Laperrière.