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Where Rivers Meet: The Story of Dr. S. F. Monestime Canada's First Black Mayor

By Doug Mackey
80 pages/8.5 x 11/Over 180 photographs

ISBN 1-896974-08-2

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When two diverse and distinct cultures meet in Mattawa in the 1950s it makes for an improbable story. Read about a remarkable Black doctor from the Caribbean nation of Haiti and an attractive Russian woman from wartorn Europe and their struggle to find their place in a multicultural Canada. Will integrity and hard work be enough to overcome the odds and make for a meaningful life? Read this powerful and moving story that unfolds where the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers meet.

This book is a chronological history of the Monestime family from their places of birth to the present day. In the case of Dr. Monestime, it covers his life from his Haitian birth on December 16, 1909 through 100 years including his children and grandchildren, to the present day.  

This book is the story of a man, who was a doctor for forty years, including successful careers in Haiti and Canada, two long periods of medical training, thousands of operations as a surgeon, and many births as a doctor; he could be remembered for this alone. 

But the story is much more than that, when you add his widely recognized remarkable political career as Canada’s, if not North America’s, first Black mayor. The legacy of his achievements for the people of Mattawa and beyond has made him something of a legend.