Alain

"He still has heartbreaking memories of visits to the Saint-Michel-Archange psychiatric hospital in Quebec City, where his mother was held for two years, and where she was given “care” in the form of ice baths. When that treatment failed to cure her depression, the doctors considered giving her a lobotomy; she barely escaped the treatment. Each of Alain’s visits were the same, and ended with her pleading. “She would say, ‘Alain, get me out of here.’” He had to explain that there was nothing he could do, that he would love to bring her home with him but that he didn’t have the authority to discharge her from the hospital. When he returned home, he would beg his father, trying to convince him that the children could take care of her far better than the so-called doctors at Saint-Michel-Archange. But it was impossible. The father knew full well that he couldn’t bring his wife into their mobile home, pushing their number to eight, only to abandon her for months when he went off to a work site. It would just pull them all back into the nightmare they had lived through before."

"His mother had found an ingenious way to help make ends meet: Every morning she made sandwiches that her son, Alain, would sell to the workers at nearby sites. They also offered sodas, which they bought at wholesale prices so they could maximize profits. Alain’s first two summers in Micoua were therefore divided between this work in the morning, and spending the afternoons fishing with his friends in the well-stocked rivers of the region."