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Sister Agnes-Marie Valois is in attendance
19 August 2006
Dieppe, France


Credits:
S.Michael Beale

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A collective gasp could be heard among the Canadian Veterans at the dedication of the new monument at Dieppe with the arrival of Sister Agnes.
The 92- year-old local nun was on the beach in Dieppe Aug.19,1942, tending to the large number of dead and wounded Canadian soldiers. Legend has it that on that day, Sister Agnes stood defiantly between a wounded Canadian soldier who was about to be shot again by a German soldier. Sister Agnes, according to lore, told the German soldier that if he was going to shoot the Canadian soldier, he was going to have to shoot her first.
There was no further incident.
Born in June of 1914, Sister Agnes-Marie Valois became a nun at the age of 20 at the Hotel-Dieu in Rouen, France. Today Sister Agnes remains well and and fondly remembered by Canada's Dieppe veterans.
"She is still a tiny little thing and she continues to get around just fine, and I did not find it difficult to envision how fiery she would have been all those years ago," says LCol. Berthiaume. "The knot in my throat when I first saw her quickly traveled to my stomach as we helped her around. She just loves Canadians."