Pierrette’s rotten luck is no joke. We see, with startling clarity, how a stolen wallet turns into a missed payment, and an electricity shut-off means a sewing machine that can’t sew.

Pierrette Albina Lussier was the eldest of eight children of Irené Lussier and Aurore Beaudoin. In her early 20s, she left home for Niagara Falls, Ont., with her younger sister to learn English.