Thursday 1 May 2025
Tribute to Joycelyn Constant – Community Mother
by June Girvan
The teenaged girls who Joycelyn Constant has sheltered and served in the region, as a full-time foster mother and President and Vice President Francophone of the Ottawa Foster Parents Association, will express their own gratitude. Some will be marking their own Mothers Day. On this Mothers’ Day, I respond to Godwin’s request to honour mothers, by honouring Joycelyn Constant. I do so, as a grateful community member who has seen this strong woman’s devotion to the children of our community who are in need of an strong figure as they struggle to manage their troubles that have been their undeserved lot in life,
So, I write to honour Joycelyn, who holds children as sacred beings. Asked why she served as she has done, she explains her belief that every child is sacred because a child is the greatest gift from God. For her, “No science can replace a child”, because every child comes to this world wearing only their innocence and looking for comfort in someone’s arms. Every child is born hoping to feel nurtured, safe, protected, affirmed and competent, in order to reach their full potential. .
“It takes a village to raise a child …” she would say, “because a child is born ready to follow a path or forge a path. Which villagers will guide?” Which villages woll help them to achieve theire aspirations in life? .. keep deam aclive? Keep hope alive?
“Each child represents the foundation of a new generation”, she says. “It is each and every adult’s responsibility to commit to a child’s well being and be ready and willing to invest with positive guidance in the becoming of responsible adults in the world; and parents to a new generation…A child requires constant caring and wise practices by adults. The labor is rewarded with a full harvest of affection and pride”. Jocelyn Constant has chosen to be that central, stable adult in the life of children who found themselves adrift.
“Spiritul values are easier for a child to get, not difficult to teach, if they are modeled. We are their role models”, she reminds us. “Let’s model what we ask of them”, she would ask off us … And let us remember that the child is a sacred being; a sacred being for whom love is the essential nutrient; th besr medicine.”.
One of her teachings is from Victor Hugo, who she has quoted to say:‘ The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves or rather loved in spite of ourselves’.
And, in mothering teenaged girls, Joycelyn’s great hero and anchor was her father.
Thank you, Joycelyn, for your gifts to community.
Here’s to you and your legacies..
Blessings!June Girvan- J’Nikira Dinqinesh Education Centre – Every Child is Sacred