writefiction | My OTHER Twin Sister.....

Emilie K. Lafontaine
Concord Monitor
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March 27. 2007 8:00AM
Emilie K. Lafontaine, daughter of Louis C. and Mary Lou Manias and Guy Lafontaine (deceased), sister of Alexandria M. Manias, and granddaughter of Jerome and Jeannine Lafontaine of Montreal, Canada, died in a car accident Saturday evening.
She was born Dec. 26, 1986, in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from Concord High School in 2005. She attended Keene State College.
She was a member of the National Art Honor Society at Concord High School. She was a member of the Concord High School and Keene State College orchestras. She rowed for the Concord High School Crew Club.
She played the viola. She also loved the banjo. She sang in the Greek Orthodox Choir at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord. She loved yoga. She played softball for the Concord City League, batted lefty, stole bases and played as the center field extraordinaire.
She was predeceased by her grandfather, Dino Manias of Concord.
She is survived by aunts, uncles and cousins of the province of Quebec, Canada; Concord; and New York.

A life filled with art, faith, family

By SHIRA SCHOENBERG
Monitor staff
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March 27. 2007 8:00AM

Emilie Lafontaine, a 2005 Concord High School graduate, wanted to be an artist.

Before she died in a car crash, Emilie Lafontaine wanted to become an art teacher - and family and friends said she was well on her way. A mural that she painted adorns the back of a dugout at Dillon Park in Concord, where she played softball. Her family's Concord home is filled with self-portraits and pencil sketches.
She excelled in drawing classes at Concord High School, where she was a member of the National Art Honor Society, and she was accepted into a selective arts major at Keene State College.
"Emilie liked life and wanted to get everything out of it as fast as possible," said her father, Louis Manias. "She went faster than life could catch up to her, and it stopped too quickly.
On Saturday evening, Emilie, 20, was killed in a car crash in New London on her way to visit friends. According to the police, she was driving north on Route 114 in a Volkswagon Jetta as Daniel Merzi, of Wilmot, was heading east on Route 11 in a Chevy pickup pulling a trailer. The two hit in the intersection. Emilie's parents said they believe Merzi hit her car on the driver's side and no one was at fault. The police are still investigating the cause of the accident.
Merzi suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the police said. Emilie was taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Her family found out when they reached the emergency room that her brain had stopped functioning. They believe she died immediately, without pain, and her family decided to donate her organs. Emilie's 13-year-old sister, Alexandria Manias, a Rundlett Middle School student, signed the organ donation papers alongside her parents, telling the doctors that her sister would have liked to be a donor.
Emilie was born in Montreal, Canada, but grew up in Concord, where she attended Beaver Meadow Elementary School, Rundlett Middle School and Concord High School, graduating in 2005. Her father, Guy Lafontaine, died of a heart attack 25 days before Emilie was born. She was raised by her mother and stepfather, Mary Lou and Louis Manias.
Emilie was particularly close to her sister. When Emilie was 12 and Alexandria was 5, Emilie taught her to play Monopoly. Later, the two rode scooters and bikes around a cul-de-sac in front of their home. Recently, they started doing yoga together.
"They were best friends, without exception," Louis Manias said.
Although she excelled in many areas, Emilie's passion was art. She loved to draw self-portraits and still lifes in charcoal and pencil, and to take photos of herself, posing with a serious look or with the wide smile that friends say was her trademark. Once, she sat with her feet up on the coffee table and sketched her toes. One picture in a recent sketchbook shows a lifelike drawing of a college roommate; another, a pair of Keene State flip-flops.
Her father pointed out a pastel charcoal sketch of a dandelion against a chainlink fence.
"Emilie didn't like boundaries, didn't want to be fenced in," he said. "She's the little dandelion looking out at the big world."
After graduating high school, Emilie spent a year studying art at Keene State College, where she was one of just four freshmen to have her work exhibited in the annual student art exhibit, said department chairwoman Rosemarie Bernardi.
But Emilie had a difficult first year and decided college life may not be for her, her father said. She moved home and started working at Karner Blue Cafe in Concord Hospital and at Panera.
At the café, she earned a reputation for making people laugh.
"She told me she likes to compliment people because it makes them happy," said co-worker Angela Egounis.
Emilie's father, Guy Lafontaine, was a Montreal chef, and Mary Lou Manias said she started wondering if in addition to art, Emilie would go into the food business.
"She was getting her feet back under her. She was comfortable, more mature, starting to grow into womanhood," Louis Manias said.
But her life wasn't all work. In a recent snowstorm, she drove over to her friend and co-worker Nicole Baldwin's house to play in the snow.
"She looked goofy with these ski goggles and said, 'I'm ready,' " Baldwin said. "She was a laugh, a blast."
While she was home, Emilie visited teachers and friends at Concord High School, stopping by the art department and giving the students pointers.
Concord High School guidance counselor Michael Curtin remembered her "gregarious, brilliant smile" and called her "a bright shining star at Concord High School and in the community."
Emilie consistently made honor roll from elementary school through high school. She rowed with the high school crew club and ran winter track.
In sixth grade, she started playing the viola, and she played in the high school orchestra for four years. Her junior year, she discovered bluegrass music and picked up the banjo.
Emilie listed her goals in her high school yearbook: "To go to college and be an art teacher, live every day to the fullest and never stop caring."
In addition to school activities, she started playing softball at age 10. She batted lefty, played center field, and had a top-notch sprint, her mother said.
Her family attended the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord, where Emilie had sung in the choir since she was a teenager. Rev. Fr. Demetrios Tonias said, despite her young age, Emilie eagerly took on the challenge of singing in English and Greek. "She told her mom 'I know all these songs,' and she put a robe on and started singing," Tonias said. "That demonstrates a certain sense of courage."
She attended a church camp at the St. Methodios Faith and Heritage Center from the time she was 8 - first as a camper and then a counselor.
"She was very mature for her age, and always with a bright smile," camp director Michael Sintros said. "I don't remember Emilie sad. I remember her always vivacious and enthusiastic."
Sintros said the younger campers respected her.
"She marched to her own drummer and provided a role model to kids, that you can have your faith and be who you want to be in this world and that's okay."
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By SHIRA SCHOENBERG
Monitor staff