Anne-Marie was born in Sainte Agathe, Maine and was a daughter of William Bouchard and Virginie Lagacé. When her mother died, little Anne-Marie was only four years old and was put in Saint-Basile boarding school. Sister Marie-Joseph was her mother’s sister. Anne-Marie entered the noviciate when she was eighteen years old as extern sister. She worked at the two boarding schools for fifteen years, and at the male employees’s department for seventeen years. She worked for many years at Sorel Hôtel-Dieu.