appui or appi

That Michel and Edith were in the room with us was quite a surprise. Saw AU-DELÀ DES MOTS - Paroles de proches aidants with Luke from Kurzgesagt last night; a documentary following Michel and his wife Nicole, and Edith and her husband Michel, where Michel and Edith's spouses both fell to Alzeimer's and the two of them took turns recounting the experience of being primary caregiver.

Luke had gone through this with his mother until March of this year when she was institutionalized. Many of the audience had either recently gone through this or were actively going through it.

The telling of the stories began with earliest symptoms, then ending symptoms before they go to a home intended for them; how they felt during the caregiving, inadequate, exhausted, helpless; how they felt when their spouse had to be placed in a home, how Michel and Edith met each other and became a couple themselves, and having their spouse's dementia as something upon which they could lean on each other. It more or less concludes with the passing of Nicole and Michel. Michel's Nicole was the roughest one, where, he was called to the home as it looked like she was on her last breath; but her last breath ended up being nine or ten days later with her last moment possibly having been any moment during that time.

After the doc there was a question period where some people just gave their feedback, others had questions of Michel and Edith. A big difference for Luke was he was son rather than spouse, however, one man in the audience did raise that being a male caregiver is less common and not generally talked about which was certainly a valid point that I am sure Luke could agree with.

It was a really well made doc with beautiful cinematographic interludes of Quebec scenery, and the narration of Michel and Edith was superb.