The Chalice
Jim and Iola Tauzin, the Barber and the Hairdresser
As you make your way around the nursing home, many of the residents will tell you about the great activities that take place and how important those activities are. They all say how activities make “the time fly” and they praise Mary and Andrea, the Activities Coordinators.
I appreciate Mary and Andrea, too, because they are very helpful to me in my volunteer activities there. When I visit the nursing home, I make my way to their office off the dining room and I seek approval for my plans of that day. A few days ago Mary recounted a story about the chalice from the Nursing Home Chapel. She said that she had decided to polish the chalice and the name inscribed on it was Mr. and Mrs. Jim Tauzin. She wondered if Jim and Iola Tauzin, residents of the nursing home, would know who that was? And, indeed, they did. Mary asked me to visit with them and to ask about the chalice.
I made my way down the halls, greeting friends and getting hugs. I love my friends!
I knock on the Tauzins’ door and was immediately welcomed. Jim and Iola don’t know me but they remember my mother and they know my sister Mavis, my passport!
The opportunity to visit with Jim and Iola was fun! Iola is the storyteller and Jim is the jokester. They have been married for 67 years and Jim says: “She stole me. I was a baby and she just stole me away.” The truth of the matter is: They are both 86 years old and Jim is one month older than his wife.
They are eager to tell their story of service to others. Jim was a barber in Lafayette for more years than he wants to remember. Iola was a hairdresser for 42 years. She even taught her trade at the beauty school in Lafayette for 12 years. They have three daughters: Bernelle Miller, Cayla Trahan and Carla Tauzin. They have five grandchildren: Mark, Michael, Ashley, Brandon and Lane. At Christmastime, they had 9 people visit them in their room before they were driven to Lloyd and Cayla Trahan’s home for a visit. All too soon, Iola said she wanted to come back to her room. She says that Lloyd and Cayla had their family coming and she wanted them to enjoy their day together.
I told them that I can imagine that as a hairdresser and a barber they had visited with many and that they treasured their quiet time. Iola adds that she also had to cook and that when her girls were young, she loved to sew for them. She was a busy lady.
When I ask about the chalice, Iola told me that when Saint John Francis Regis Church was dedicated, Monsignor Daniel Bernard asked for donations for a chalice for the visiting priests. Jim and Iola Tauzin answered the call. Years went by. The Tauzins moved to Lafayette and they often wondered about that chalice. Once, they even made a call to Saint Francis Regis Church but the pastor at the time did not know anything about it.
Now, we know the rest of the story. The Nursing Home Chapel Chalice is the very one that the Tauzins had donated! No one knows how it came to be at the nursing home.
Iola is an unusual name, in this part of the world anyway. I don’t know anyone else by that name. I asked about it and Iola tells me that her mother’s brother went to the Normal School in Natchitoches. He met a girl there that he liked and her name was “Iola.” He asked his sister to call her baby by that name. Later, he was ill with typhoid fever and died of the illness.
Iola was the only child of Therese Moran and Joseph Moran. Yes, her parents were both Morans. Iola says, she is a pure Moran. When Iola married Jim, her father provided a house for them. They lived in that one home until they moved to Lafayette in 1960 to be closer to Jim’s work.
Jim is the son of Despaliere “Paliere” Tauzin and Edith Kidder. Anicet Tauzin, father of J.C. “Nin” Tauzin and Florina Tauzin Martin (also a resident at the nursing home) was a first cousin of Jim’s father. I tell Jim and Iola that I remember a “Raymond Tauzin.” Jim jokingly tells me: “Raymond, I don’t know him.” Iola admonishes him and tells me that Raymond is his brother.
Iola tells of their travels with Florina and Nookie Martin, Vernice Tauzin Stelly and Annie Tauzin Stoute and how much fun they had on motor home and van trips. Sometimes, Verne and Annie stayed in the van and Iola and Florina took in the sights and did some shopping. Iola says she preferred traveling by car and she and Jim have traveled all of the states except some along the east coast. They even visited some of the Canadian Provinces. Iola served as the tour director, making itineraries and reservations.
For now, Jim and Iola enjoy quiet days. She says that they spent so many hours on their legs that now, they are content to lay in their beds and rest.
It has been fun and Jim has kept me laughing. I share Apostleship of Prayer leaflets and, of course, they remember Nonco and how he walked the streets of Arnaudville delivering his leaflets to everyone he met.
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