The confidant n° 1 of the Quebec

Photo Ben Pelosse
Louise Deschâtelets, who spends on average two days per week to this work, considers himself fortunate to fly the Mail in the Newspaper for nearly two decades.

Sophie Side

Sunday, 3 September 2017 00:00

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Sunday, 3 September 2017 00:00

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She is the confidante of the most well known in Quebec. Louise Deschâtelets, who will celebrate his 17 years at the Courier Journal in November, is still as passionate about her work, which allows him to stay “fully connected” to the current society.

“It keeps me young, launches at the end of the wire Ms. Deschatelets, attached to his residence in The Île-des-Sœurs, which also houses his office, where she is doing each week all the work on the Mail.

“I am very pleased that The Journal allows me to continue to do that, because I remain completely in the life of the society,” she says, stressing that she does a lot of readings, particularly in psychology, to ensure they always understand the reality of young people and less young people, who wrote to him by the dozens each week in search of a little help.

The adventure began in November 2000, while Solange Harvey was leaving the job to the Mail Log. The latter, who had crossed Ms. Deschatelets on the same day of the announcement of his departure, had advised him to apply.

“I said : “Listen, I don’t think this is in my ropes. Me, I’m not really.” I had not even submitted my application so I was certain that this was not done for me !” recalls she.

A few days later, the post was formally offered, to his surprise. It was the beginning of a long dialogue with thousands of Quebecers.

For men and women

“I have begun to publish letters of people who respond to other people just as much as people who discuss my opinion with me,” she says. To make each letter understandable and attractive, the work was very arduous at the start, is it.

“Sometimes, I had to rewrite the letters four or five times before being satisfied. But now, it runs most source. And I got to create a kind of movement which makes the whole world found there, and we can get back on the same subject three months later, without it being shifted”, she said, welcoming at the same time have managed to reach more men.

“At the beginning, four or five years I would say, we got to have half men, half women at the level of the readership, and sending letters. And it has not faltered since the last 12 years,” says Ms. Deschatelets.

A ” mail for life “

The people who wrote to him were, most often, between 30 and 70 years, ” she said. Not surprisingly, the postal mail is less frequent, so that the vast majority of the hundreds of messages received every week is now sent by e-mail.

“It was called a letter from the heart at the time, but it has changed a lot over the years. Now, I could call it a mail of life, raises the one whose face is familiar to the four corners of the province.

“We talk about the love life of the people, but we are also talking about religion, the problems of society, problems at work, neighbours… It has completely broadened the spectrum as.”

Pampered

The confidant n° 1 of the Québécois, who spends on average two days per week to this work, feels lucky to drive the Mail for almost two decades.

“I can’t be disconnected from what’s happening. It is for this reason that I have so much fun to live !” says the septuagenarian, smiling.

Anecdotes memorable

The times where the police called…

“That was at least 10 years. A woman of the South Shore of Montreal, had written me and had me describes a case of sexual abuse in a child, a case of unacceptable child assaulted daily by a spouse, and she let him do it. In my response, I had been very virulent, but it was a letter, as terrible as I had been much shaken, ” recalls Ms. Deschatelets, who explains that on the day of publication, the letter had been the subject of debates on the airwaves of a radio in montreal. “The next day, the Sûreté du Québec had me called, and we’d met. Them, they wanted to have the letter. They asked me if I had any clues, but I had none, except that it came from the South Shore. They had opened a folder and told me to contact them if I was getting something else from this person over here, but I have never been rewritten. “

Letters to the test !

“The people who write to me by mail, most are very much afraid that I don’t receive their mail,” says dr. Deschatelets. Of the time, they’d send two, even three times, and they close their envelopes to the sticky paper ! When I see that there is a lot of paper and sticking it on an envelope, I understand that this is someone’s anxious, fearful. Someone who is afraid that I do not see, or someone opens his letter. It is less common than it once was, but it still happens often. “

Jeannette Bertrand as an advisor

When she took over the Courier Journal in 2000, Louise Deschâtelets turned to Jeannette Bertrand, who had experience in the field of mail of the heart, to ask him some advice. “Jeannette said to me : “It is necessary that you do trust. In a letter, what people want is to talk to a friend, to be able to tell him things that you cannot tell even with your relatives,” “, ” recalls Ms. Deschatelets. It is also Jeannette Bertrand, who had advised him to rewrite the letters that she will publish. “She said : “It is necessary that thou bear their letters as attractive as if they were reading a novel. After that, you you out to find that the avenue to take, either they know or they have a good idea, otherwise they must rely on their entourage that advises them of things. It is necessary that the letter be attractive and that your response will be much shorter”. “This is why it is very rare that the answer to Louise Deschatelets is as long as the letter…

“Wicked” louise !

Some correspondents never tire of it and write for many years to share with him their displeasure on the answers it can provide in the Mail. “For example, there is one who writes to me for the past 10 years through the postal mail each and every time a master writes to me. She thinks that I prefer mistresses. She is confident that I am an evil woman… She told me that it was nonsense ! says Ms. Deschatelets. But she is unable to see what I am responding really to the mistress. […] People respond to the light of their own life. Of the time, she can write me three times [his letter] to be sure that I receive it. “

WHAT HAS CHANGED THE MOST IN 17 YEARS

“The more direct way that people have to tell their problems to,” she said. With e-mail, people use fewer words to say things. Now, I need to lengthen my letters because they say in three words what they said in one paragraph before ! It goes much faster. The people also have a lot more ease to express themselves. It is here that one sees the evolution of education in society. ”

WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED IN 17 YEARS

“This is amazing, when one speaks of sharing of duties, it easily splits the technique, the domesticity. But what one still has difficulty, it is emotional, and it does not change much, ” says Ms. Deschatelets, who adds that the fear of men to consult is always present. “It has not changed much, this fear is still very present in the men… fear of losing their masculinity. “