Janine was born to Antoinette Lefèbvre and Armand Ayotte in 1932 in their home near Saint-Séverin-de-Proulxville, Québec. Growing up with eight siblings on the Ayotte farm by the historic mills on the Rivière des Envies, she was the second-youngest of the family. The strong values she was taught, together with her own gift for smart choices, would serve her and everyone in her life remarkably well—with lasting impact on generations to follow.
The parish, carved at the end of the 19th century from surrounding concessions, was a place where church bells, the grain mill, sawmill, and carding mill set both the moral and economic tempo of life, and where a two-kilometre walk to the village in all weather brought hardy children from scattered farms to school and to Mass.
Janine grew up in a time and place where Roman Catholicism was less a subject of debate than the air one breathed: catechism by rote, Latin in church, and French prayers at home.
Traditional roles were assumed rather than announced; from her mother she learned sewing, mending, and the arts of thrift, skills that would later anchor her independence as surely as any diploma.
A childhood mishap left Janine with no vision in her left eye, but that only seemed to strengthen her lifelong resolve to make the very best of her circumstances.
Despite the long walks and winters that required layers of wool, her mémoires recall a happy childhood, with berry picking in summer, improvised showers under the mill dam, and evenings around a radio listening to wartime reports delivered by René Levesque from Europe.
Good at school and encouraged by her parents, she thrived in the one-room école de rang and later at the convent in the village, where mixed-age classes, stern religious sisters, and a seed-filled attic used for agricultural lessons opened her eyes well beyond the fence lines of the farm.
Her adolescence coincided with the end of the Second World War and the early stirrings of modern Québec, but in Saint-Séverin the rhythms still centered on harvests, novenas, and the weekly paper; within that narrow sphere she excelled, earning her ninth-year certificate with high distinction and choosing teacher training at the École Normale du Cap-de-la-Madeleine, a convent-run college that trained generations of rural schoolteachers.
There, amid early morning bells, chapel, and communal dormitories, she learned pedagogy, literature, mathematics, and the small, revealing disciplines of communal life—from the proper way to change discreetly in a shared dorm to the seriousness of keeping one’s lessons prepared.
Her first real leap from home came with a posting to Baie-Comeau, the new pulp-and-paper company town rising in the 1930s and 40s on Québec’s North Shore, founded to harness waterfalls and forests into newsprint.
For a young woman from a landlocked parish, Baie-Comeau meant ocean air, a frontier economy, and a French-language school that needed teachers willing to live far from home, in a town whose very streets had been laid out for millworkers, managers, and their families. Her earnings allowed her to maintain a strong fashion sense—essential for those rare, big-city trips with her sisters and friends.
Janine enjoyed teaching in Baie-Comeau and found a new best-friend-forever there: a fellow Québecoise, Jocelyne, who met a young Norwegian named Tor Vølstad, a migrant worker drawn to Québec by jobs in heavy industry. In 1956 Tor’s older brother Lars followed him to Canada in the same search for work and was introduced to Janine. The brothers knew as little French as the Québecoise friends knew Norwegian, so English would always be their shared language. Janine's initial impression was that Lars was too brash and young for her (he was actually six years her senior), but the farmer’s daughter from Saint-Séverin soon married the fledgling construction leader from Scandinavia.
And Jocelyne, of course, married Tor.
Janine's first child, Mark, was born in 1958, just as Québec and Canada were entering an era of highways, megaprojects, and mass migration from countryside to town. Lars and his work in heavy construction drew the family to Sept-Îles, another North Shore boom town tied to iron ore and port infrastructure. In 1961 Janine made her first big trip to Norway over Christmas to meet the Vølstad clan, and enjoyed a countryside as beautiful as her own homeland. Then came moves to Downsview and Clarkson, on the outskirts of Toronto, a newly-built house of their own. Visits from Janine's siblings were always cause for celebration. Son Eric came along in 1963. The family enjoyed an unforgettable trip to Expo 67 in Montreal, and Clara was born later that year.
Like Janine, Lars had grown up with dairy cows, and in 1970 the couple decided to try a return to their rural roots. So they bought a nice farm complete with its own sugar-maple forest and érablière near Saint-Tite, just 10 kilometres from Janine's ancestral home. For two memorable years that was good fun (if not profitable), and then Canada's heavy construction industry came calling again for Lars's leadership. A big project in London, Ontario brought the family there for two years, followed by a fortuitous series of large projects in Saint John, New Brunswick. The family's happy home outside the city, in the hamlet of Gondola Point, saw all three kids through high school.
The kids inevitably scattered to the four winds and started families of their own, but always enjoyed returning to New Brunswick, where Janine had a special gift for making everyone feel at home. She was a doting grandmother and enjoyed trips to visit them as much as they enjoyed the journeys home. Lars's work would eventually move the couple once again, to their final home together in Dieppe, on the edge of Moncton. They both particularly loved gardening there, and seaside visits from Janine's siblings.
Saying goodbye-for-now to her loving husband in 2005 was plenty tough, but Janine was close by his side until the end, and in their own home, and surrounded by their three children. It was an incredibly memorable experience for all, as they reflected on the half-century of adventures and love that Janine and Lars had shared.
Janine held down the fort for several years after that in Dieppe, always enjoying family visits and any opportunity to dust off her teaching skills. She eventually sold the house to move closer to family in Kanata, at the west end of Ottawa. Retirement-home life was a nice break from maintaining a home of her own; it also brought new opportunities to enjoy Canada's capital with friends and loved ones.
For almost all of Janine's life she only saw with her right eye, and that eye too had been gradually failing for years. Thankfully she could still see well enough to roam the sidewalks on her own. And on her own, she noticed billboards and construction cranes going up for a new seniors' residence nearby called The Bradley Gracious Retirement Living. She arranged for a tour while it was still being built, and she liked what she saw, so she was the first to move in when it opened in 2019. That was a very wise choice indeed, and Janine lived very happily there for the rest of her life.
In January 2025, cancer was discovered in Janine's abdomen. Five quick painless rounds of radiation therapy patched up the immediate damage very nicely, but further spread was inevitable. How much longer would Janine live? Well, being Janine, she persevered much longer than anyone expected, of course!
In October she was admitted to a remarkably nice hospice in Kanata for end-of-life care. But that proved quite premature: during her five long weeks there, she never became bedbound; in fact, she was the only patient we'd see regularly strolling the hallway.
So after five weeks, she walked out of the hospice, quite alive, and was very happy to be back in her apartment at The Bradley. From that point on, the amazing round-the-clock care she received right in her own home from a constant stream of wonderful caregivers and palliative medicine professionals—even doctors!—was astonishing and absolutely inspiring.
Throughout this challenging final chapter of Mom's journey, she scarcely shed a tear. “Courage!”, Mom so often told her three children, in her best Québecoise, as we were growing up. And courage is one of the many beautiful qualities we will always remember in our mother.
Janine Ayotte Volstad
In Kanata, Mrs. Janine Ayotte Volstad, beloved wife of the late Lars Volstad and daughter of the late Armand Ayotte and Antoinette Lefebvre, passed away peacefully at home with family at her side on 31 January 2026 at the age of 93, after a long and inspiring life marked by courage, generosity, and a steadfast devotion to family.
She was preceded by all her brothers and sisters: Constant, Marie-Claire, Dominique, Rita, Jean-Marc, Yolande, Jacques, Colette and Jean-Denis.
She is survived by her children Mark Volstad (Lylah), Eric Volstad (Alysia) and Clara Butland (Mark), her grandchildren (Bruce, Angela, Amanda, Kristen, Alex and Evan) and great grandson (Bryn), as well as numerous nieces and nephews in Canada and in Norway. She is also survived by her sisters-in-law Jocelyne Tremblay Volstad and Suzelle Richard Ayotte.
A native of St-Séverin, Québec, Janine lived her life in numerous towns across Québec, Ontario and New Brunswick, initially teaching on the Québec north shore, and later following her husband and raising their three children as Lars pursued employment opportunities supervising heavy construction projects. She had a lifelong passion for gardening, education, and heritage, and was widely loved for her quiet strength and steadfast values.
Her family will host a celebration of her life at her retirement residence, The Bradley, on 7 February 2026 at 2 PM. A road trip at a later date will bring her ashes through her birthplace in Québec and onward to her final resting place alongside her husband Lars at the columbarium at Chartersville Funeral Home in Dieppe, New Brunswick.
To share stories and photos of her remarkable life, and to read her memoir of youth, please visit volstads.com/janine.
“Je vais toujours me rappeler de la belle semaine passé avec tante Janine lorsqu'elle habitait Moncton. Nous avions visiter le musée et elle m'avait confier être “un peu gênée” car elle ne l'avait jamais visité avant. Beau souvenir!” —Line Ayotte
“Your Mom was the first lady I met when we moved to NB and that was 50 years last August. Your Mom was such a gentle, soft spoken person with a heart of gold. There are so many great memories and I valued her friendship more than you know.” —Carol Condon
“I've known your mom for close to two years, and she was a truly special woman. She always inspired me with her quiet presence and calm confidence, and I was always amazed by how easily she maneuvered the halls of the Bradley without the use of her eyes. I'll miss her smile, and seeing her in her usual place at table 13 during meals.” —Jacinta Hart
“Janine was an amazing lady. I had wonderful conversations with her on a variety of subjects. She was so knowledgeable and loved to shareWe will miss her.” —Kay
“Janine was such an inspiration. Rest in peace.” —Gilbert & Kathy
“Bon voyage, Janine. Tu vas me manquer.” —Kim
“Hey Janine I couldn't go without saying this one more time. Stay in the middle, follow a straight line all the way to Heaven. Rest in peace.” —Lise
“Janine—the sweetest, most determined lady I've ever met. I loved her to pieces! ❤️.” —Melissa xo
“As a nurse we have the privilege to meet human beings that give you inspiration, warmth, calmness, peace & respect. This is what ‘Mme Volstad’ gave me. When I would see her name on our clinic list, my heart would fill up with love and warmth. She was an absolutely lovely lady. ‘Merci Mme Volstad’” ❤️❤️❤️ —Nancy Sullivan
“It was an honour to care for a woman who, despite living with blindness, carried herself with remarkable dignity and strength. Janine Volstad was a woman of routine and clarity, very direct with her wishes, and deeply resilient. One thing that always stood out was her gratitude - she never failed to say “thank you”, whether to caregivers or to her children during their calls. It was a simple habit, but one that spoke volumes about her character... You will be remembered for your dignity, courage, resilience, gratitude, and the lasting legacy you leave behind.” Click here for more —Aghogho Okuneh
“Janine enjoyed one on one conversations, learning knew things, and spending time with young folk... She had great compassion for the plights of others and would look for ways to help if she could... She shared different stories with me over the years, but not once did I ever hear her speak of regret or disappointment! She was a woman who was at peace with who she was, and any hardships she encountered, were viewed as challenges to conquer. Her focus was always on what the future has to offer. I believe her love of life came from her steadfast faith in a Heavenly Father that loved her.” Click here for more —Christine Galbraith
“Janine, you were truly a good soul. Your presence was strong and meaningful in our retirement living community. You left a beautiful mark through your kindness and spirit. You will always be remembered with respect, gratitude and quiet admiration.” —Basma Mahfodi
Do you have any photos, stories, or greetings to add? Please email us!
