Paulette Fontaine was born in Edmonton in 1954. Her father, Cam, recalls, "She was the most beautiful little baby you'd ever seen." At 3 months, however, Paulette began to have convulsions, and tests showed she was mentally handicapped. "We didn't know what that meant," Cam said. "Then the doctors told us that Paulette wouldn't be able to do things that other kids do."

Two years later, Cam and his wife Pearl moved their family to Bonnyville. It was 1956, and there were no services for people with developmental disabilities. "The frustration was immense," Cam said. "There was nothing out there for us. In those days handicapped kids were supposed to be kept in hiding. And I mean hiding. They weren't supposed to mix with other kids. We had a next door neighbour who'd come outside and bring his kids into the house if he saw Paulette in the yard or on the front street."

In this climate of fear around people with disabilities, it was no surprise when Paulette was sent home from school when she was 7. "We were angry," Cam said. "But there wasn't much we could do. The teachers told us she didn't belong in school, and the School Board drew the line when it came to Paulette."

By this time, the Fontaines had three other children at home. "We were under a lot of stress," Cam said. "A public health nurse came by one day and told us we should put Paulette in Alberta School Hospital in Red Deer." The nurse filled out the paper work, and, from the age of 8 to 16, Paulette lived at the hospital. "Leaving her there was the hardest thing we ever did," her parents admit.

The Fontaines phoned Paulette often while she was in Alberta School Hospital. "We didn't dump her there and forget about her," they said. "Paulette came home for Christmas and Easter, and she spent summer vacations at home too."

"The communication at the hospital was terrible," Cam said. "I'd write a letter asking what Paulette was doing, and the answer was always the same: 'She's very happy. She makes her bed every day. She seems very pleased.' But when Paulette was 16, my wife visited and asked about her academic progress, and a staff person explained that Paulette had completed all the levels. My wife asked what Paulette was doing, and learned that Paulette was feeding the children in the infirmary. "We were upset," Cam recalls. "They were calling her an aide! There was no reason for Paulette to be there if her schooling had ended. It took us 10 days to get her out of there, then she was back home for good."

It was 1970 when Paulette returned home, and Bonnyville still had no programs for people with developmental disabilities. Luckily, the Fontaines found a woman with special education training and Paulette became one of her first students. From this early experience a program was developed and, in May of 1972, the Dove Centre was formed.

Paulette is still active at the Dove Centre. Over the years she has worked at the bottle depot and in the woodworking shop. Today, she works four days a week, from 9 am. to 4 pm., in the store selling second-hand clothes. She loves playing cards and watching movies, and she enjoys music and line-dancing.

"Every morning, even on weekends," Cam says, "Paulette wakes up at 6:00. She does her personal care, and then she starts her needlework. When she's not working, she keeps busy by keeping track of her nephews' and nieces' birthdays and making sure she has a gift ready for them. She also helps with household chores, and, twice a week, someone from Catholic Social Services picks her up and takes her to bingo or to a movie."

"Paulette's 47 years old now," Cam says, "and Pearl and I aren't getting any younger. We often wonder what's going to happen to Paulette? We're not sure yet. She needs some kind of supervision; she can't live entirely on her own. We read 'The Good Life' and got some ideas to help us make a transition plan. We found three or four good people who are ready to commit themselves to being advocates in Paulette's life. That would be best. So we're working on it. Hopefully we'll have some system in place so that when death does occur, some transition will have been made and she'll already be used to some other way of living.