Yvette D. Affleck

Yvette Douin Affleck, 98, passed away peacefully on October 31, 2023 in her home in Shapleigh, Maine. She was born on March 8, 1925 in Bar-le-Duc, France to Emelie and Louis Douin. Yvette is survived by her sister Lisiane Douin of Vedene, France; her son Glenn of Avon, CT; her daughter Bonnie and son-in-law Duane of Shapleigh; and her son Wayne and daughter-in-law Bonnie of West Yarmouth, MA. She also leaves behind her six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Paul and her French siblings Gerald, Raymond, and Giselle. Yvette spent the first 21 years of her life in France, surviving the dangers and privations of the Nazi occupation during the Second World War. Alongside her courageous Maman Emelie, she often risked her life passing letters between jailed resistance fighters and their families, hiding Jews in their home, and assisting their escape to Spain or Switzerland. In May of 1945, she attended the official signing by Eisenhower and DeGaulle of the German surrender at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Reims, where she was once a young student before the Nazis closed it down. It was in Reims where she would soon meet the love of her life and future husband Paul, an artillery sergeant in Patton’s Third Army. After a few dates chaperoned by Maman Emelie herself in the back seat of a jeep, the couple fell in love and wed in Reims in April, 1946. A few weeks later, after Paul returned to the States to be discharged, she traveled with other “war brides” to NYC and was escorted by her sister-in-law Pat to her new home in Springfield MA, eager to build a new life in a new world with Paul, who eventually became the director of Goodwill Industries for Western Massachusetts. While in Springfield she gave birth to her three children and enjoyed weekends with them at the family’s cabin in the Berkshires and summer vacations on the same Cape Cod beach that Paul and his brother Fred had enjoyed as children. She and Paul then opened a new chapter in their lives by moving full time to Cape Cod, where Paul became the founding director of Residential Rehabilitation Centers for children with special needs. Years later, she and Paul changed their lives yet again by buying and operating the Avalanche Motor Lodge in Manchester VT. When retirement finally beckoned, they followed their daughter Bonnie and her family to Shapleigh ME, where they helped them manage the popular Corner Store Restaurant in town for more than 20 years. In every new place Yvette called and made her home, she honed her talents as a gardener and an artist. While living on Cape Cod, she attended the Provincetown School of Art for several years. There she fell in love with Impressionism and mastered this style in her landscape, seascape, and still life oil paintings. In Maine, she found a new passion for creating what she called “French desserts of distinction”. A section of the Shapleigh Corner Store was soon set aside as “Memee’s Sweet Escape Bakery,”which proved very popular and lucrative. News of her delicious homemade treats spread quickly, and customers from far and wide would journey there to satisfy their craving for her unique offerings. Eventually, her family members and everyone else who knew her, or knew of her, would forever call her Memee, a name of great affection for a French grandmother. In the last few years of her life she even tested her skill as a writer, publishing her captivating memoir at the age of 95, titled My Journey: France to America (Lulu Publishing, 2020, Lulu.com). In her words, “I wanted to share my journey from France to America – the pain, the joy, the courage, and the love – and most of all what I have learned with each step along the way. I hope this story of my long life will leave lasting and tender memories for my family and friends and help bring a personal meaning to the catastrophic world events that shaped them. I traveled to America from the ruins of France in 1946 to begin a new life with Paul, a war-weary soldier. Now, more than 70 years later, I am surrounded by dozens of family members, whose lives I pray were enriched by the love of two people from worlds apart whose unlikely destinies were revealed in a world at war.” Thank you for leaving us this precious keepsake, dear Memee.