Grand Falls — A Most Beautiful Place to Live

Has anyone ever noticed how beautiful our town of Grand Falls is?

I sat on a bench last summer in front of Jean Coutu Pharmacy. It was a wonderful sunny afternoon and the beauty that surrounded me was absolutely overwhelming. All the progress was simply amazing.

Always see with your eyes, hear with your ears and feel with your heart. You will experience something spiritual. You will get a grasp of life like you never had before.

Our town is surrounded by love. We should realise how lucky we are to have a place to live with so much beauty.

The boulevard and all the flowers, the labouring of love in the care of the flowers. All for our wonderful tourists and us. A boulevard is a rarity in a town. We should treat it with respect and appreciation. I’ve been in many towns all over the province and I notice everything. I really see with my eyes. There are many beautiful towns. It is not because Grand Falls is my hometown where I was born and grew up, that I think it is a most picturesque town to enjoy all year round.

Broadway in its millennium years is filled with energy, progress, and an ambience of a brand new life for us all. The many businesses are courteous, always ready to help us with everything we need. Pleasant clerks serve us. We have a post office for our mailing needs. Medically, aren’t we lucky to have competent doctors and nurses to take care of us? Many countries are not so fortunate. We have to smell the roses along the way; it will give us much more happiness, and make us have a greater insight about our daily blessings.

Have you ever paid close attention to our policeman, his uniform? Think about all the responsibility he carries everyday. Almost like a soldier on the front lines, putting his life at risk to protect us. Think of it. They wear a firearm and uphold the law so that we may be free. We should be thankful and grateful. They really want the best for us. For if we could all be “good citizens” they would be out of a job. Also think of all the volunteer work they do, they are heroes in uniforms.

The firemen, the ambulance services, ‘911 at the touch of a button — put it all together. The food bank, so many volunteers, love in action taking care of the needy. Our spiritual requirements, churches of our choice. We have so much to be thankful for!

Oh yes, there are dreadful incidents in our town, but it seems to me the good outweighs the bad.

You know if we feel with our hearts, it will release our comprehension of everything meaningful surrounding us, especially our beautiful town and all the superbly loving and generous people that live in it.

Freedom of speech, our town papers, radio stations, the Town Hall, even if we do have to pay taxes, the library, all we need for knowledge and information for almost everything, the best schools, dedicated teachers — I could go on and on. It can’t get any better than this!

And we must not forget our Shopping Centre, where often we meet and make new friends, a place of refuge on cold winter days and a place to keep us cool in the hot summer days. It’s a place of fun and beautiful clothes and goods of all kinds to buy . . . and now a Wal-Mart, Tiger, and a new movie theatre soon.

Last but not least, our hardworking farmers. St-André, Drummond, Grand Falls. We could not survive without them. Bless em all!

And, oh the beautiful countryside . . . God Bless our town, a most beautiful place for us all to live!

Jeannine Soucy Watson was born and raised in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. She has been writing for eight years, mostly poems and motivational material. Her poetry has appeared in La Cataracte and Victoria Star. An avid songwriter, two of Jeannine’s songs were published and recorded on a demo by Paramount Group Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Email Jeannine at wapoem@nb.sympatico.ca

Are you Hometown Proud? Send us a picture from your hometown along with a note telling us why your town is great. We’ll publish your story in an upcoming issue of Bread ‘n Molasses magazine. Send your photos and stories by email to editor@breadnmolasses.com, make sure to put Hometown Proud in the subject line.