The Robillard-Cadorette Family: The TV show On efface et on recommence

Here, read the transcript of the interview with Claude Robillard and Chantal Cadorette, citizens of Saint-Eustache.

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Claude Robillard: We were talking about it last night, and I said, “It must be a really special group of people to be able to come into a project like that and participate in it together.” And it’s all volunteer work, you know! They’re giving their time. So, it was… it was moving to see the video. We saw it once, and we wanted to watch it again because when we’d seen it, we were… it had a bigger impact on me than I thought it would. I thought I would watch a bit of it and OK… we experienced it, the opening. But you see people’s reactions. You see the people all around. I even saw my kids – I hadn’t even seen them because there was too much going on, even for me. I saw the reaction of Anne-Marie who signed us up for the program. Because Anne-Marie is the one who got everything going. We would never have signed up for the program. She was the one who did everything. And on the show, I saw Anne-Marie, and all the people involved. It was really touching.

Chantal Cadorette: Yeah, seeing the TV show gave us the chance to see and appreciate everything that’s involved in renovating a house. Because first of all they do, you know, the demolition. Then the roof, and then… You see how it progresses, and… seeing the people there, it’s… It gives more… even more value to the house, seeing all the people who… who came. Who got involved and gave their time. And the sacrifice their families made, too. Because… letting Dad go… I know there were women who came too, but… Letting your spouse go, there were children who shared their parent with… for us. There were spouses who shared their spouse so they could come and work for us. And that’s special. It’s really… it’s priceless. This house is priceless. Not just because of the… the investment, the big investment that was put into it. But the investment of… time and love. And that’s something we’ll never really be able to give back… to people. You know, it’s… really love that was given to us without anything expected in return. And that’s priceless. You know, we can say thank you. We sent cards, and… nearly 200 cards. Maxime Dion gave me everything, by the way. The names of the… the firefighters and the police officers. Because it would have taken a long time to find all that information. But… there were a lot of them who were happy to get a card. But that’s nothing. You know, you can’t… It’s not like when people give each other a hand: you come help me with my roof, I’ll help you with some painting at your place. No, it’s free. You received without being able to give anything back. You just receive. It warms your heart to see that so many people gave like that, for us, for people they don’t know. It’s really… It’s really touching. They’re good people. They gave from the heart. They gave out of the goodness of their hearts. And it’s truly… appreciated, everything they did.