By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

Diane Dutremble smiled through tears as she sat on the simple granite bench in Williams Court park.

As community members wandered through the new city park, she and her siblings took a quiet moment to reflect on their childhood on Williams Court, the parents who held the family together and the sister they lost too soon.

The Parent family donated to the park a memorial bench for their youngest sister, Donna Marie Parent, who died on Williams Court 30 years ago. The bench and a neighborhood lantern were unveiled Saturday in a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the new Biddeford park.

The park, which will be named this fall, was created when city officials used federal Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Stabilization funds to demolish three dilapidated apartment buildings.

The centerpiece of the park is a bronze neighborhood lantern created by Josh Dow and Lauren Holgren of Green Foundry in Eliot. Hands cast from molds of 11 people chosen by neighborhood residents overlap and reach up to the lantern’s globe.

The highest hand of all belongs to the late Cecile Parent, mother of Donna Marie and her siblings. Cecile Parent, who died July 3, was so eager to be part of the transformation of Williams Court she went straight from the hospital to have a mold of her hand made last summer.

“She was really happy and proud to be chosen to have her hand cast. It meant a lot to her,” said Dutremble, whose hand also is included on the lantern.

When Dutremble heard about plans for Williams Court park, she approached Community Development Coordinator Linda Hardacker about donating a bench. She wanted a tangible way to honor her youngest sister and the family’s long-time connection to the neighborhood.

The Parents’ connection to Williams Court began when Donatien and Cecile Parent bought their yellow house there in 1964. Their four surviving children recall playing in the street with friends as parents sat on front porches to talk late into the night.

Everything changed for the Parent family on Aug. 27, 1981. Donna, who at 14 was about to start high school, was down the block babysitting. At the end of the job, she ran down toward her house as the father of that family watched. And, as always, she rounded the corner onto Williams Court and disappeared from sight.

But on that night she never made it home. Dutremble said her parents were awakened by police and taken to the hospital to identify the body of their youngest daughter, who was found dead in the street.

For six long weeks, the family waited for autopsy results to shed some light on what happened to Donna. Finally, the answer came: Donna developed an irregular heart beat while running, fainted and suffocated in the dirt on the street where she grew up.

It was, Dutremble said, the tragic end to a life that brought so much joy to their family. Donna, the baby of the family, was a bubbly, lively and smart girl who loved to play in the middle school band and looked forward to starting high school, she said.

“She told me secrets our parents didn’t know,” recalled Donna’s other older sister, Debra Rennie, during the unveiling ceremony. “I really do miss her.”

Donald Parent said visiting the park will always remind him of his mother, sister and the years they lived on Williams Court. For his brother, Denis Parent, visiting the park Saturday was emotional.

“It brings back tons, tons of good memories of growing up and playing here,” he said. “We have such a strong bond to Williams Court because we grew up right here.”

Denis Parent said visiting Williams Court also reminds him of Donna.

“She was full of life. We all treated her like the princess,” he said. “If we were pulling a wagon, she was sitting in it.”

Though the initial intent of the bench was to create a memorial for Donna, the Parent siblings decided it was also important to include tributes to their parents. The words “Mom & Dad” are etched in granite next to a cross that symbolizes their Catholic faith and a heart to represent the family, Dutremble said.

The bench was going to be a surprise for Cecile Parent, who was widowed 14 years ago when Donatien Parent died in the home he worked all his life to buy. When her health began to fail, Dutremble and her siblings told their mother about the bench.

“She was very happy. I think she was proud we were doing this. It touched her deeply,” Dutremble said. “She’d be happy to sit here and reflect as we all do.”

Dutremble said she and her siblings were touched when they realized their mother’s hand faces the bench named for her daughter. While sitting on the bench with their backs to the house they grew up in, the siblings look past their mother’s hand to St. Joseph Church where the family held baptisms, weddings and funerals.

“It’s soothing. We can look at this forever and see how Mom’s hand is raised,” Dutremble said. “It reminds us she was strong, we were all strong and we can go forward.”