Mr. Delacorte was the single widowed father of Lorraine "L.D." Delacorte, a student who attended Degrassi Junior High from September 1986 until June 1989; and then later on Degrassi High from September 1989 until June 1991. He was a car mechanic who ran his own service station who worked very hard on his life's work, but didn't always take very good care of his health until a trip to the hospital became a wake-up call.
Character History[]
Original Degrassi: Season 1[]
A photograph of Mr. Delacorte's late wife.
Mr. Delacorte was first seen in Nothing to Fear. Some years before the events of the episode when L.D. was very young, his wife died from cancer and he carried on as a single parent, raising his daughter all by himself while running his own auto mechanic business with his assistant Jeff. He didn't take very good care of himself and would spend long hours in the garage without getting enough fresh air outside, as well as smoking. He and L.D. were very close, but he began to worry that his daughter was growing up to be too much of a tomboy, dressing in jeans, plaid shirts and baseball caps instead of wearing dresses and skirts and her steady interest in fixing cars with him and Jeff.
Jeff, Mr. Delacorte's assistant at the garage.
In fact, that afternoon Mr. Delacorte and Jeff were going to fix the transmission of Joey Jeremiah's father's car and L.D. wanted to help them, but he wanted her to clean the kitchen instead, and try to learn how to grow up and become a proper young lady; as well as to stop wearing baseball caps all the time. Just after L.D left for school that day, he and Jeff were about to get back to working on a vehicle in the garage, when suddenly he felt a sharp severe pain in his chest and asked Jeff to call the doctor. Mr. Delacorte was then admitted to the hospital.
When L.D. came home from school that afternoon, she was in shock to find out from Jeff that just after she left for school that day something horrible happened to her father and he was now in the hospital. This was because just before she left for the school that day, they had a little disagreement and she muttered under her breath "drop dead", and now something horrible had happened. Jeff tried to calm L.D. down and tell her that he would be OK. Jeff tried to convince L.D. to go and visit her father in the hospital, but she wouldn't — coming up with one excuse after another, such as needing to clean the kitchen. The truth was L.D. was afraid to go to the hospital, because she remembered the horrible devastating experience of when she was little: her mother went to the hospital and never came back. Now, she felt the same was going to happen to her father too. L.D. tried to visit him at the hospital and to bring him flowers, but she was haunted by her upsetting memories and, when she saw a porter pushing a patient on a trolley, couldn't stand to be there any longer, so had the nurse take up the flowers to him. L.D. then called her father at a payphone, and he told her he still didn't yet know what was wrong with him, but assured her that he was strong as an ox, he would be back home soon, and hoped that the kitchen was nice and clean. The next day, L.D.'s friends Voula and Spike brought Mr. Delacorte some flowers to help cheer him up. The day after, L.D. finally faced her fears, went to the hospital and went right to his hospital room. At first, L.D. worried when she saw that his hospital bed was now made and not being used, but was ecstatic to see him come back into the room, all dressed and ready to go home. She told him "You're alive!" and hugged him in a sigh of great relief. Her father assured her that he was OK, explaining he had developed angina and needed to start taking better care of his health.
Season 4[]
In Just Friends Mr. Delacorte was now very upset. First his wife died from cancer, and now L.D. was going for chemotherapy for leukemia. But as upset as he was, he knew that he too had to be strong and stood by his daughter's side, encouraging her not to give up, to be strong and they were going get through it together as a family.
Season 5[]
In Bad Blood, Part One Mr. Delacorte wasn't seen, but it was mentioned that with L.D. in remission from just after a few months of cancer treatment. He subsequently decided that life was too short to choose not to do what you want, so he decided to sell his house and his garage; bought a boat, and took L.D. sailing down the islands.