As the family of Lee Joseph and Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun grew, the house grew. At its core is a structure that is over 112 years old. (Rita LeBleu /American Press)

Home, as the saying goes, is where our story begins. Anna Bernadette Monlezun-Ponton has taken a unique approach in the telling of hers. 

She is Caretaker/Curator of her “ancestral home of origin” co-owned by her brothers Lee Joseph Monlezun, Jr. and Dominique Joseph Monlezun.

“The significance of the items in this home represents 47 years of my parent’s marriage,” Bernadette said. “These treasures are a culmination of their years of sacrifice, joy, faith and work offered for their children. I feel it is a way of honoring my parents by respectfully and gratefully preserving, sustaining and making relevant for their descendants the room-by-room displays of these precious artifacts and memorabilia.”

After her mother’s death in 2000, Ponton sorted through years of paper and photographs. She organized it, starting family walls which trace the family’s beginnings from France Basque Country and Germany.

 “My father, Lee Joseph Monlezun carried my mother, Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun, over the threshold August 13, 1941,” Ponton said. “Etched in a support beam in the attic is 1904 the year the original center structure was built.” 

Lee and Gertrude rented out the downstairs to boarders for $15 a month while they lived upstairs for a short time as Lee Joseph Jr. was on his way.

Wedding photo of Lee Joseph and Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun. 

“I like to think of them in that tiny upstairs library that was their kitchen,” Ponton said, “discussing their dreams and talking about the children and lives they would have.” 

 

He had several Lake Arthur businesses. She cared for the house and their children’s souls, minds and bodies in a way that would prepare them for their own trials and successes.  

As the family grew, the house grew. However, it would be considered small by some in this day and age for a family of 12.  In addition to Bernadette (fourth born and eldest girl), Lee Jr. (first born) and Dominique (youngest), Gertrude gave birth to Robert Joseph, Charles Joseph, Malcolm Joseph, Alvin Joseph, Constance Victoria Monlezun Darbonne, Ione Marie Monlezun-Broussard and Veronica Gertrude Monlezun. 

  Happy memories include going to The Office after daily naps, pony riding, singing around the old piano and the extravagant treat enroute to visiting brothers once a month at Immaculata Seminary in Lafayette, LA of “20 hamburgers and 20 french fries please” at the drive-thru. (No soft drinks. Bernadette said her mom packed water.) 

One chapter in the story of this home is difficult and heart wrenching to understand. 

Alvin Joseph, at age 10, drowned trying to save his 6-year-old sister, Veronica Gertrude.

Bernadette has kept the work of her mother and other family members. This is a great way to display it and something that anyone can do. (Rita LeBleu / American Press)

 

“My mother, brother and I were on our way to visit my grandmother at a nursing home in Jennings as I was departing for my first year of college in San Antonio, TX the next day” Bernadette said.

The family continues to hear stories from Lake Arthur natives about their recollection of the event, including the sounding of the siren and an entire community, regardless of denomination, kneeling and praying together during what turned out to be a futile rescue.

At the center of the house is the kitchen, the command center. An extended family member crafted the table. Ponton keeps the nascent hearth “fire” burning with refreshment and with a lighted votive candle. It casts a glow on her parent’s framed marriage license, wedding photograph, vintage photo of the home and St. Joseph statue, the patron saint of family and home.

Ponton has preserved and displayed samples of hats, handbags and clothing throughout the house including her father’s wedding suit, the latest in maternity wear during the ‘40s and early ‘50s, handmade christening gowns, cassocks, and uniforms. Displays contain household records, tools, books, needlepoint handiwork and historical binders. 

Behind an old Singer sewing machine is a display of handmade quilts displayed on Monlezun baby bed railings. Quilts on display span 175 years of sewing in two generations. 

Her childhood home has come to be a sacred dwelling for her, Bernadette explained, the place that calls to mind a life guided, nurtured and protected by a father and mother who loved and were committed to their God, each other and their children. 

“Their home was a loving and joyful place,” she said, “one that nurtured the next generation as a foundation for this life and for our eternal life as promised in the sacred covenant of marriage.”

The story of home is one that never truly ends.