There is excitement in the air in this fifth secondary class at Chêne-Bleu secondary school, in Pincourt, on Île Perrot. It’s the last period of the day and the end of the school year is approaching. The students arrive in class with their yearbook in hand, looking for farewell words and signatures.
Their French teacher, Thomas Poirier, invites them to put their albums aside. At the front of the class, in front of the interactive whiteboard and behind a microphone, Patrick Richard is preparing to present his creation to them, The Voice of the Father, the Way of the Son. For 40 minutes, the digital content creator will recite a text accompanied by video archives, photos, music and a good dose of humor. The subject ? His life, quite simply, which he tells to this missing father.
“I’ve filmed so much stuff in my life. Unconsciously, I wanted to prevent my children from experiencing the trauma that I experienced, I who always sought the voice of my father,” he summarizes.
His father, Robert, killed himself on April 7, 1986, struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues. The collateral damage of suicide is enormous. Patrick Richard was 10 years old at the time, almost 11. As a teenager, he found a “cure” for his pain, for his fear of taking his place, of making mistakes, of being rejected: alcohol, Drugs.
In his story, Patrick Richard recounts this first “black out”, at 15 years and 3 months, in front of all his relatives. He also talks about this clown role that he adopted to survive and lighten the atmosphere at home. Of his university master’s degree which he completed despite consumption. From these trips to India where he got rid of his last brushes.
Then he talks about this therapy, in 2001, which began his recovery and reconstruction.
“I came out of there with a way of life that certainly could have saved yours, and also notebooks, to write my life,” Patrick Richard tells his father. He bases his story on texts that he has written every day for 15 years, particularly those that he signed on April 7, the date on which his father killed himself.
Since 2022, Patrick Richard has presented his project in around twenty classes and half a dozen times in front of the general public. He wishes to bring light to young people and fathers, the model of a man who welcomes his vulnerability and expresses his emotions. “Guys, we don’t often go to these areas,” Patrick Richard points out to the students, whose attention is no longer focused on the yearbook, but on the sharing they witness.
The performance is always followed by an exchange. That day, the trio of Ryan Maliki, Zachary Lamontagne and Vincent Valiquette asked Patrick Richard several questions. Where did the trigger to want to get out of it come from? Who are the texts he writes every day aimed at? What would he say to 10-year-old Patrick?
Another student was wiping his eyes, his head resting on his desk. Even at 15, 16, 17 years old, many adolescents experience a lot of things, underlines Patrick Richard, who ensures that troubled students are monitored by the school.
In the future, Patrick Richard would like to return to the classroom a second time to lead a creative workshop with young people. “Behind every wound, there is a great treasure that can be released,” he concludes.
