Gail was my idol when I was a little kid.  She was so much older growing up so I have no memory of her in high school or leaving for college.  My earliest memories of her, I was in maybe 3rd grade. I thought she was the prettiest and nicest woman.  She treated me like a queen.  According to my mom she helped my mom A LOT with me.  She gave me so much attention and she made me feel like it was always about me.  Like when I was 3rd grade I got a purple bike with a glitter seat and a flag for Christmas, and on Christmas Day when it was so cold, Gail came outside to teach me how to ride that bike.  My mom always said that Gail takes care of everybody and she was like the second mom in the house.  

 

In fifth grade during the summer I went to camp across the lake and Gail and Jack came home from France from that time and when I got picked up from camp, I was ready to GO.  I just couldn’t wait to see Gail.

 

My parents fought a lot and I would call Gail to vent or for help and she would just kind of talk me down.  This would have been about 7th or 8th grade. She was a major confidante for me.  And I would get into trouble for calling her because it was long distance.  

 

We got a lot closer as I got older.  We’d talk about stuff and when Danielle was born that was the first time I had ever gotten on an airplane.  And I got onto a plane 7 in the morning and went straight to the hospital.  And Gail looked at me and said, “can you believe I have a baby?”  And I looked at her said “yeah!”  Because her and Jack were together a long time before they got married.  

 

Her and Jack split up when I was a Junior in High School.  When she moved to Colorado, we’d have frequent phone conversations – and every time Nana would talk with her then I’d get to get on the phone.  And Gail would usually call Nana so that she was paying for the long-distance.  She could do no wrong in my mother and father’s eyes.  My parents divorced when I was 18 and my mother confided in Gail a lot.  And Gail had come down a few times to help my mom while that was happening and when the divorce happened that was yet another family she had to make time for when she came to visit and that was very stressful for her because everybody wanted her time.  And you know she would not plan ANYTHING until after 1:00 p.m. because of how much that woman slept, haha.  

 

By the time Gail went to Alaska that really pissed me off, because it was like France - it was so far away.  Chris was the reason she went to Alaska because he waved his money in her face - and at that point she had none - and said, ‘come up here and I’ll take care of you.”  I think her intelligence threatened men – definitely Chris. Chris was an arrogant piece of shit and started doing some drug stuff and he wasn’t even good-looking.  It was a bad situation for her and the girls and Gail was strong - she was going to do whatever it took to get herself out of that situation.So she had to call Jack and say, “I need money, I need time, and I need you to take the girls.”  So Jack was going to get the girls - but someone needed to go with them.  So Johnny flew out there to escort Lauren and Danielle.  Anybody would do anything Gail asked.  

 

-She went back to Colorado and dove back into her career. I mean the people she cared about most were her girls. But Gail was also really into management and very into her work.  She worked A LOT and gave so much to her work.  It just wasn’t a big part of her life that she’d really share.  

 

We didn’t talk as much by the time I was in my 20s and wild and partying all night. But we started talking more when she got engaged with Mark and she asked me to be her maid of honor, and so we had more frequent conversations.  I was there for the wedding with Mark and when I got married she came down several times during my engagement year for bridal events.  She came down for all the showers, and things.  I’d try to get up there once a year but that didn’t always happen.  

 

But when Gail was in town everyone was on pins and needles about when we’d get to see her.  She is the most loving, happy … She was JUST.  WARM.  You’d look at her and you’d just see pure “warmness.”  She just wasn’t like the other Fontenelles.  I never see her scream at her girls. I only had one fight with her my entire life, and I started it and felt like shit.  I don’t know if there’s anyone who disliked my sister in whole life.   I would go to the Langlois and just see her talking to Maman and she didn’t even speak French!  And Gail would hold her hand and just talk and it was just crazy.  And she was like that for the whole family because she didn’t live here, the whole world stopped when Gail would come to town.  ​
 

Gail came and spent two weeks with me when Emily was born and would get up in the middle of the night. And I was shocked because she was a HARD sleeper.  I mean, she loved her some sleep. And it was all her idea.  And she was married to Mark and she left Helen with Mark the whole time.  

 

Mark was a totally different guy at that point - such a good guy.  She confided in me when he became addicted to drugs.  She came down for Christmas in 2006 and Mark wasn’t here because he had just gone to rehab for the first time.  She didn’t want to tell them but I told her there was no hiding it.  So she met up with Wayne, Johnny, and Charlie after their golf game to tell them.  Mark ended up going to rehab several times.  And throughout that time she really labored over what to do.  She really loved him and truly thought it was going to change because of the person he was before. It was so hard for all of us to see how this great guy turned into something so different. 

 

But that was the thing about Gail. She ONLY saw the best in people.  She wasn’t like the rest of us, she didn’t talk shit about people.  And when I would talk shit about people she would just say, “Rene, you’re just so bad.” 

 

-As soft as she could be, she was a VERY STRONG person and she went through a lot relationship wise.  She was very strong through what she went through, she never threw her hands up in the air and said, “I just give up.”  She was very strong in her faith and that came back around when she met Mark, because he was very strong in his faith.  And she really became more religious with Mark.  One time we were about to go to the beach – this was before she had left Mark – and I went in to get Gail and she was just sobbing and holding her rosary, praying.  

 

Gail has always been the same person to me.  She was always on a pedestal to me.  She was the most wonderful person and everybody loved her.  Everybody gravitated towards her, because I think when she spent time with people she made you feel so important.  Like she truly cared.  She would give such 1:1 attention and the soft way she’d talk with you.  I would get jealous if I were at the Langlois and everyone else wanted to talk with her.  She was extremely good at listening and offering solutions.