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Sharing Memories With Gisele Litch

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Tuesday September 16, 2008

By Cookie Steponaitis

    For many generations of Vergennes residents a trip to the local post office means going to see Gisele. Her smile, humor and incredible memory for facts about each of us make getting the mail an event that includes meeting an old friend. Gisele started at Vergennes Post Office on June 12, 1975, when Post Master David Aubin asked her to work in a position that was to last for a period of ninety days. Within two weeks, they were talking about extending the ninety days to ninety more and before we all noticed, thirty three years had passed and Gisele became a local institution. She has been a civil servant through at least six different postmasters and three decades of change in the Little City.

    Gisele walked a mail route the first ten and a half years of her time with the postal service and remembers often dreading the High Street and Comfort Hill part of her route. “One day,” she remarked, “it was the dead of winter and my feet were so frozen that I didn't think I could walk another step. I stopped at one house and called my husband Jimmy. His father brought me some felt boots to wear inside rubber boots. Our kids picked on me about needing a fashion coordinator, but I told them I was not out for winning a beauty contest, but for staying warm.”  She moved indoors in 1985 and has been the face many of us see in the post office ever since. When asked about the misconceptions people often have about the U.S. Post Office, Gisele was quick to point out that, “While most people think it is an easy job, it is not. There is a great deal of work and knowledge that goes into it.” While computers have revolutionized the process of tracking packages allowing the public to follow their parcel, she still comes back to the fundamentals of the job that have kept it new and exciting all these years. “I am in love with the people,” Gisele shared. “They brighten every day and share part of themselves with me.”

    Those who know Gisele from her many roles in the community know that for her it has always been about her family, her commitment to the community and her faith. Gisele was born in Moosecreek, Ontario and came to America in 1948 with her parents and three siblings. Her aunt lived here and her family first came for visits and then decided to make the move. Settling in Whiting, her father worked on a farm and Giselle attended a one room school there. “I spoke absolutely no English,” Gisele remembered. “Miss Dennis worked with me and at first I had to start back in the first grade, because I didn't even know the alphabet in English. By doubling my lessons, I quickly caught up with my classmates.” While school was in English home was definitely in French. Her mother spoke no English and her dad could speak enough to get by. All of her father's seventeen siblings and her mother's eight siblings spoke only French as well.

    While attending a dance, chaperoned by her brother Bernard, she met the love of her life Jimmy Litch. Novenber 24, 1956 was their first date and they were married on September 7, 1957. Jimmy was working for the Norton Grist Mill in Vergennes and the young couple settled in the Addison area, purchasing a farm on Norton Town Road in September, 1958. Ironically, Giselle was not able to have her name on the deed at first, because she was 36 months shy of her twenty-first birthday. The state law at the time prohibited her from being a legal owner of the farm but changed quickly after her birthday and she and Jimmy worked the farm side by side for years. They raised four children, Jeannine, Jacques, Jacqueline and Terry there and now the family has grown to ten grandchildren and one great-grand child.

    Gisele is very animated when she shares memories of her beloved husband of fifty years, who passed away this past January, their children, and the grand children. The children thrived in Addison and grew up close to their parents, grandparents and vast extended family in Canada. “When we first came to the farm,” Gisele remembered, “there was only one farm from the main road to the bridge. Now there are at least 45 homes on Norton Town Road and possibly even more. The farm was a good teacher for the children. Each had their chores and their responsibilities. Like my own brothers and sisters and I did, they learned to milk, care for the animals and keep up with what makes a farm work. They grew up close and still enjoy each others company even today.”

    The warm smile and genuine concern for each person who comes into the post office each day are an integral part of the person that so many people in Addison County have grown to love and trust. When asked if she had concerns about the future her grandchildren will have to face, she paused and thought a minute before responding. “I know things will be hard for them, because life has changed so much,” she remarked.

 “However, I know that our parents felt the same for us and we found a way. When you have your faith and your family, all things are possible.”

    While Gisele will still be there to greet us each day at the Vergennes Post Office and is looking forward to seeing us, she was excited to share with me a trip she and her sister plan to take back to Canada to visit some of their aunts who are the oldest living members of the family. With the smile and hug that I have come to associate with Gisele, she thanked me for coming and again seemed a little nervous about being in the paper. “I am not news worthy,” she remarked. “I am just treating people as I like to be treated.” And thankfully for the rest of us, that 33 year tradition show on sign of coming to an end, at least not for a while yet.

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