Stranger surprises family with plaque honouring their brother at site where he drowned 50 years ago

Plaque honouring Quebec boy who drowned in 1974 A stranger surprised a Montreal family with a plaque honouring their brother at the site where he drowned 50 years ago.

Like many children growing up in the West Island, the Terra-Cotta Park in Pointe-Claire was a big piece of Guylaine Nadeau's childhood.

"This was our playground. There were trails, there was the creek, you know, there was the old rope, as we called it, which was an old fire hose tied to a tree that we used to swing on," Nadeau said in an interview.

It was also the site of one of the worst tragedies her family has had to face.

On March 6, 1974, her six-year-old brother Alain Nadeau was playing with some friends in the forested area when he slid down an embankment and into the creek, which was overflowing due to the spring thaw.

"He fell and was washed away by the current. They estimated that the strength of the water was 40 km/h. So, a six year old boy, no chance," she said.

Nadeau was only two when it happened, but she grew up under the shadow of that tragedy, one that affected the entire neighbourhood.

In the decades since, the story of what happened to Alain started to fade.

Nadeau said someone posted a picture of the creek on a Facebook forum, and she shared the story of how her brother died. She said many had no idea that a six-year-old boy drowned there. She didn't want her brother's death to be forgotten, so she spoke with her brother about finding a way to memorialize Alain.

That's when her 12-year-old nephew suggested a plaque.

"My nephew, Ben, was coming here for a scavenger hunt with his class, and he asked his father, my brother, if he could put up a plaque all on his own," she said.

He inscribed Alain's name and death using a marker on a wooden board and hung it on the fence near the site where he fell.

Then, much to the family's surprise, they heard that another plaque had been put up beside it.

"Somewhere within the last year, somebody who we still don't know who it is, and they they've been told they want to remain anonymous, went and had a more permanent type plaque made and they put it up right next to it with the exact same words," she said.

She says it's a mystery they will never likely solve, but the gesture is something that has touched their family deeply, especially Alain's mother, who used to walk the trails of the park daily. Nadeau's father, who was a park foreman for the city of Pointe-Claire, never got to see the memorial to his son.

While the city has put up a fence along the embankment and a grate in front of the culvert where Alain was swept away, the family would still like to see more safety measures put in place.

The City of Pointe-Claire did not wish to comment, but the Nadeau family is having discussions with the city to find a more permanent way to honour the life of Alain, and keep his story alive.