We say to ourselves that this is something that sometimes happens to elderly and lonely people, forgotten by everyone. So how could a young man like Karim Ouellet, aged 37, and moreover a known and loved personality, end up like this?
Posted at 7:00 p.m.
The announcement of his death had sent shockwaves through Quebec last January, but upon learning the circumstances of his death, it is impossible not to be even more upset and bruised. It really breaks your heart, we would have preferred to avoid these details. According to the coroner’s report, Karim Ouellet died of a complication related to his diabetes that he was not treating, combined with drug use. He is certainly not the first artist struggling with his demons to disappear too young – think of Dédé Fortin, who also left at 37 – but what causes amazement in this report is to learn that his body was not discovered until two months after the death, which is believed to have occurred in November.
How can you be so isolated? There was of course the confinement, but there was also his birthday, Christmas and New Year’s Day which passed during these two months…
I see people judging the friends and family of Karim Ouellet, who are already overwhelmed by the loss of a loved one. Especially because we paid tribute to him in a big show recently. Sadness and helplessness should never make us forget that those who remain after such a tragedy are weakened and that our only consolation lies in compassion.
It is that a similar ending appeals to everyone. The idea of dying without being surrounded is a great universal fear, a scandal that we refuse to imagine and yet it happens very often in our societies where there have never been so many people who live alone.
Several relatives explained that the singer had cut ties with those around him. It is very difficult to break down the wall behind which a person is determined to lock himself up, even more so if we add to this the problems of drug addiction. And very often, addiction problems mask a mental health problem, when they develop to escape suffering, such as self-medication that turns into poison. Moreover, one cannot force a person to follow a treatment or a therapy. This does not exempt us from demanding better social and psychological services to support vulnerable people. I know people who refuse to see any doctor, sometimes risking their lives. Others who can impose radio silence for months, before reappearing as if nothing had happened. I have also seen in my life suicides of people who were nevertheless surrounded by love, help and surveillance. I’m not telling you about the guilt that can linger for a long time afterwards, and which sometimes never goes away, even when you’re not guilty of anything.
It is that beyond a certain limit, one cannot know the depth of another person’s abyss. And that if we want to force the door of someone who is isolating themselves, we very often risk betraying their trust and seeing the door close more.
We walk on eggshells, crossing our fingers that nothing bad happens, but sometimes it does happen.
“Are we alone in the world ? asked Karim Ouellet in his song Karim and the wolf. In fact, I believe so, we are basically very alone in the world, but there are some who are lonelier than others, those who, for example, carry within them a pain that prevents them from feeling good in this world. “ As they say, real friends are rare / At least I’ll always have my guitar / Talking about me is not in my nature / I’m not who you think, what a sham “… Karim Ouellet left with his mystery, as every human being disappears one day with his secrets.
It is quite normal to feel immense sadness on learning of the end of one of the most gifted artists of his generation, and we must, I believe, live up to this grief, rather than in the judgment that is , anyway, perfectly useless. Both towards Karim Ouellet and towards those who survive him.
We must now respect all the beauty he left, because it is the best way to tell him: rest in peace.