Bruno Planchez wrote a book recounting his life as a home helper in the Vesseaux sector in Ardèche. A funny, moving, and engaging book that makes us think about a sometimes little-known but difficult profession.
A profession of service, of contact, and a profoundly human profession: Bruno Planchez, home help in the Vesseaux sector in Ardèche, decided to recount his experience in a book that he wrote himself and which has just been released : “One step in front of the other, the hectic life of a home helper in Ardèche”. Like all those who do this job, he has merit but no recognition, or very little, impossible hours from one end of the day to the other, a pittance salary. “This profession is very poorly known and poorly perceived” said Bruno Planchez. “We see a home helper as someone who comes to do housework and leaves. And actually, no, that's not it. It's a real human relationship which can be very complicated, which can take place over ten years. We can stay with people for a very, very, very long time. As a result, empathy develops, a real relationship develops with people. We are often, sometimes, perhaps the last link they have with social life.“.
Exceptional human exchanges
Bruno Planchez, very lucid about his profession, about its difficulties, is very attached to it. He recounts his frustrations, his laughter with the people he visits sometimes every day, his fascinating discussions as well, for example with Emile in Saint-Andéol-de-Vals: “someone who had a sort of good nature, like that, an old Ardèche farmer who told me about the quintals of wheat and barley that were coming out. It was impressive. I told him – how could you get all that out when there is no one left in Saint-Andéol-de-Vals? – And he told me, but there were crowds, He told me all about it these funny stories about chestnuts…”
Death? a passing train…
Bruno, 61 years old, also discusses a difficult subject but with great sensitivity: his relationship with death, at the end of life since he mainly works with very elderly people. “In fact, you are with people who have gone beyond seduction, who have gone beyond the challenge of succeeding in life. You are with people who no longer have anything to prove to anyone. And I often say that my job is It's being on a station platform, on a bench with a person who is going to wait for a train and she is going to take this train and she doesn't know when you are there, you accompany her, you talk to her. her, you wait for the train with her, etc. one moment, she takes this train.” This book, as moving as it is, is also engaging. Bruno Planchez does not hide his activism on the left, his struggles, his anti-capitalism. “One step in front of the other, the hectic life of a home help in Ardèche” was published by Maïa. It costs 19 euros.
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