Tuesday's books - Amélie Wauthier
Suzanne is ninety-five years old and has suffered numerous falls, which is why she has been forced to move from her retirement home to an Ehpad, an establishment for dependent elderly people. The understaffed staff are overworked and not always kind or caring towards their residents. Every gesture is counted, and everything is calculated so that not a second is wasted. burn-out the key. The proposed activities are infantilizing and Suzanne refuses to participate. It has to be said that blind obedience is not in her nature.
When she was younger, she dreamed of being an actress in New York, a lawyer, a journalist or even a cosmonaut, at a time when women were learning to be good housewives. The story is punctuated by analepses that take us back in time alongside this child born in 1922 into a household composed of Joseph, a passionate artist, and Louise, a diligent housewife. Growing up in Le Havre, Suzanne experiences the frustration of not having the little sister she so desires, nor the tenderness of a cold, strict mother. From an early age, Suzanne was confronted with death, as her bedroom window overlooked the river where the local drunks drowned. She lived through the century, the Second World War and all kinds of bereavements. Her motto: «SQM: Sourire Quand Même». We discover a strong young woman with a strong character, who loves books, tennis, travel and having fun.
This is the story of a grandson, Frédéric Pommier, who paints a portrait of his grandmother, a woman who was sometimes extravagant, often generous and touching. This gripping tale is full of love and gentleness to describe events of extreme violence. The violence is that of retirement homes. The violence suffered by the elderly who are confined there, sometimes abandoned, forgotten. The food is disgusting, the weekly showers too cold to last more than five minutes, broken shutters take weeks to repair, clothes and personal items disappear, medications are reversed. One night, one of Suzanne's neighbors fell out of bed, but no one came to his aid until seven in the morning. As for Madame Martin, «since no one comes to see her, and they're short-staffed, they only take her out of bed three days a week!»
In this hospice, it's not just the elderly who have it tough, as several employees are on long-term sick leave, and those who speak out against the conditions in which the residents are held are fired.
«I call ‘the establishment‘ to let them know I won't be in for dinner. I let it ring. No one answers. I try again, in vain, three times. Suzanne is not surprised. They're overwhelmed. And not enough of them. You have to pity them, the people who work in that house...’’ Soon, she'll be moving to another house where a vacancy has opened up. The rent is more expensive. We don't know if it will be better. Suzanne just said: ‘‘It can't get any worse.’’
This alarming picture calls our humanity into question. Have we denied our elders, the people to whom we claim to owe respect? Does life lose its value the closer it gets to the end? Why is it that the comfort of our parents, grandparents and their carers is less important than the savings we can make on their backs? Is it out of guilt or unconsciousness that we allow our elderly to be treated this way? These are the questions we might ask ourselves after reading this deeply moving account, and they send us back to the end of our own lives. Because the elderly, before being confined to room numbers, have also lived their share of stories and adventures, like Suzanne, like all of us.
«Since she left home, she's lost twenty kilos and I've lost a few grams of humor, because Suzanne is my grandmother.»
Frédéric Pommier
Suzanne
Editions des Equateurs
2018
234 pages
Write to the author: ameliewauthier@gmail.com
Photo credit: © Amélie Wauthier for Le Regard Libre
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