Louis's story: An interview that did far more than open a conversation on mental health
On The Go wins New York Festivals gold for Louis’s Story
Ted Blades, host of On The Go, was in New York City last night to receive a New York Festivals gold award for Best Talk/Interview Special for his interview in March 2014 with Andy Jones and Mary-Lynn Bernard, parents of 28-year-old Louis Bernard, who killed himself earlier in the year, after a long battle with mental illness.
My first thoughts were of Louis, a young man I really didn't know at all.
My CBC colleagues were quick to congratulate me — the New York Festival is a major, international competition. To win a gold there is considered by many to be a high point in a journalist's career, but I found it hard to feel much joy.
"A kid had to kill himself for this to happen," I thought. "Tough way to win a trophy."
Still, it's validation for what I do every day on On The Go. Most awards are given out for highly produced pieces, with sound and field tape and multiple perspectives.
Seldom, if ever, is the comparatively mundane task of conducting interviews — asking questions, hoping for answers — honoured in any way, but the New York Festivals, which celebrate the best radio from around the world, does.
I'd like to think it won partly because I've learned a thing or two over the past 30 years at the CBC: how to focus your approach so you get to the heart of the story; how to ask simple, open-ended questions that encourage people to talk; and, most importantly, how to be quiet and stay out of the way of your guest.
It's not about you; it's about them.
Their beautiful, funny son
Still, whatever skills I brought to the table that day, it was Louis' parents, Andy Jones and Mary-Lynn Bernard, who did the heavy lifting.
They let me pry into their lives and spoke frankly about the saddest thing that's ever happened to them. They told us how their beautiful, funny son ("So full of life", they said) began to hear voices when he was nine or 10, voices that grew louder over the years, voices that no drug regime could control.
It took years to reach a firm diagnosis. Eventually doctors said it was the most severe case of obsessive compulsive disorder they'd ever seen.
Despite their help, Louis couldn't see a future he could endure. The one drug that silenced the voices in his head also knocked him out.
So the choice facing him was sleeping all day or falling victim again to thoughts and behaviours he couldn't control.
Either way, it wasn't a life, so he decided to stop the pain the only way he could. He hanged himself in his room at the age of 28.
In talking to me, though, Andy and Mary-Lynn made a point of stressing that the disease wasn't Louis. It was something he had.
The real Louis — the jokester, the agent provocateur — was still there, they said, even if you could catch glimpses of him only from time to time.
Their hope too, in putting themselves through this burden of talking to me, was that it might help someone else, that it might help us all understand what it means to struggle with mental illness, if only a little bit.
An immediate impact
Andy and Mary-Lynn said they wanted to start a discussion, and that they did. The impact of their interview on On The Go was immediate.
Every other media organization in town followed in our footsteps and sought them out.
All of those stories were widely circulated on social media. People began to talk.
Several public forums on mental health were held. Local musician Amelia Curran, who's had her own struggles with mental health, wrote a new song about the issue. She and filmmaker Roger Maunder made an informative video to go with it.
An advocacy group, the Community Coalition 4 Mental Health, was formed.
In January, the members of the provincial legislature voted unanimously to form an all-party committee on mental health in Newfoundland and Labrador.
All of this because two people were brave to share their son's story.
Why listening is so important
I spoke with them last week, to see how they're doing and to share the news. It's been a tough year, as you can imagine, and they say it's harder now than when they first spoke with me last spring.
The shock has worn off, but Louis is still gone and their loss is palpable. But Andy and Mary-Lynn say they're trying to not let their grief be all that they are now. They're not speaking at mental health events as much as they did last year as they make more time for each other and for their work.
As for my work, a friend said I was selling myself short by focusing on the sad act that precipitated my receiving this award. She reminded me that my job as a journalist is to help people tell their stories.
"Some are happy, some are sad. You don't have control over that. What you do have control over is how you approach that job, the respect for the guests that you bring to the assignment and your skills as an interviewer and editor."
I guess she's right. As much as this award pays tribute to that family it also honours the careful craft of making radio and — I think — celebrates the ancient grace that comes with simply listening to what people have to say as they add their words to the ongoing human conversation.
On The Go will be replaying Louis's Story this afternoon between 5 p.m and 6 p.m. NT. CBC Newfoundland and Labrador received a silver award Tuesday at the New York Festivals in the health/medical category, for Dave Sullivan's Downsizing series, which chronicled his decision to lose weight and change his lifestyle.
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