Maureen St. Pierre was sitting in a gazebo with her daughter at Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park last month when something strange happened – a young man broke out into song.
Then another person joined him, then another and another.
“Gradually everyone who was around me was on the floor dancing and singing,” St. Pierre said.
“It was the most wonderful feeling, especially when he said my name in the song. Then I knew it was for me.”
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St. Pierre had been involved in theatre for years and often told her six kids, “wouldn’t it be wonderful if life was a musical?”
So just after her 85th birthday, St. Pierre’s daughter, Danielle Digby, organized a flashmob with local actors singing and dancing in a scene that looked like something out of a Hollywood musical.
Digby, who works as a musical theatre actress, asked some young actors to put on a show in the park for her mother. After a few rehearsals, the group surprised St. Pierre with a rather unique pairing of songs – “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” from the musical Hello Dolly and “YMCA” by the Village People.
Digby said organizing the flashmob was the least she could do her mother. She said St. Pierre adopted five interracial children back in the 1960s and left an abusive relationship before remarrying and giving birth to Danielle.
“I wanted to make this one of the happiest moments of my mom’s life, because she deserves that,” Digby said.