How to rebuild and even, quite simply, live after an infanticide? Patricia Oddo has never stopped asking this question. Her ex-husband killed their two children before committing suicide.
"Surviving hell is possible". This sentence sums up Patricia Oddo's state of mind. On September 5, 1990, the unthinkable happened in her life: the loss of her two children, Lucie and Sylvain. Their father, Jacky, who couldn't stand the separation with Patricia, killed them and then committed suicide. Then comes a long descent into hell for Patricia. But in the darkest, love is there. Carried by his family, but also by his new companion at the time: Eric, the father of his two other children, Angélique and Thibaut, born after the tragedy.
When infanticide breaks into life
"One evening we were watching a movie on television, the story of a husband who killed his wife for adultery. And Jacky said to me: 'If you are cheating on me, I will not kill you, but I put a bullet in your spinal cord to paralyze you for life "https://www.aufeminin.com/", Patricia remembers. What to predict the worst, which happened in 1990: Jacky kills his own children. How is it possible ? What happened in Jacky's head to make such a decision? Questions are raining down, but finding the answers won't bring the two little victims back. It took Patricia years to figure this out. "Children should not leave before parents", declares our interlocutor. And yet …
In the aftermath of the tragedy, everything collapsed. A double sentence: the death of her children and the infanticide perpetrated by her ex-companion, this man with whom she had fallen in love when younger. Jacky's sordid phrase will echo many years after Lucie and Sylvain's death. Despite the fact that no one can know when words turn into deeds, the weight of guilt lasted for a very long time in Patricia. Lucie and Sylvain's mother even explains that she would have liked to suffer again and again if that would have made it possible to put an end to the infanticides which are still present, but remain taboo.
The instinct that drives you to live again
Another torture for Patricia, the look of others, because in the eyes of society, mourning, and moreover that concerning children, must take place in such and such a way. A neighbor even told him: "You didn't kill yourself, you couldn't love them." These judgments hurt Patricia terribly. When she announces to her relatives that she is expecting a child some time after the two infanticides, many do not understand. She could hear: "She's wasting no time, Patricia". "But how long will it take for me to have some happiness on this earth?Patricia replies. The love of his two other children saved him. And made him understand that his existence was not over. A possible future, without feeling guilty for feeling again emotions like joy, but while carefully keeping the memory of Lucie and Sylvain.
Over the course of our meeting with her, the emotion rises, but Patricia insists on sharing with us her love for life, a powerful ally against dark thoughts. She also explains that writing her book, "Surviving the Worst", published on January 26, 2021 by Max Milo editions, was a real therapy. "I was afraid of words, of memories, of the eyes of others, but I had to write it, for myself, to relieve myself, to try to understand what happened in my life. How a father can kill her two children. How can such a situation happen ", shares our guest. For Patricia, this book also makes it possible to create a link between brothers and sisters: from now on, Lucie and Sylvain are told to Angélique and Thibaut.