Claire Janon worked for six years in EHPAD. It was while reading “A Day in Ivan Denisovitch” that the caregiver was struck by the similarity between the life of gulag prisoners and daily life in a retirement home. Inspired by Solzhenitsyn’s novel, she decides to take up her pen.
Immersion in the daily life of an EHPAD resident
In A day of Yvonne Denis, Ardéchoise Claire Janon immerses us in the repetitive and immobile daily life of Yvonne Denis, resident of an EHPAD. Inspired by her experience as a caregiver, the author paints a poignant portrait of life in an institution for the elderly, marked by incessant waiting and a progressive loss of personal autonomy. Beyond the routine, the story reveals a deep dependence on pressurized and disillusioned nursing staff. Yvonne, like many others in her situation, experiences a loss of identity and power over her own life, experiencing a growing sense of worthlessness and invisibility.
Claire Janon
Having become a caregiver at the age of 50, Claire Janon first worked in this profession as a replacement in numerous EHPADs. She thus discovered the reality of the fate reserved in France today for the elderly and nursing staff. Before becoming a caregiver, Claire Janon was an editor in a communications agency (another life), then a companion for disabled school children (AESH). Born in 1966, she lived for a long time in the north of France. Since 2005, she has lived in southern Ardèche.
Criticism of an institutional model
Far from Gravediggers by Victor Castanet, A day of Yvonne Denis does not explore issues of brutality or neglect orchestrated by a politics of profit. Claire Janon has only worked in public or associative establishments. However, she denounces a model and a lack of means which results in a form of dehumanizing seclusion. Claire Janon also brings this necessary message to the stage and is currently filming a theatrical adaptation of her text throughout France.
A day of Yvonne Denis by Claire Janon was published by Livres du Sauvage (St Montan-07).
The Books of the Savage
