“When Brigitte had cancer, I think I became a man,” Ricardo Larrivee confesses to his great friend Marie-Claude Barrette in the latest episode of the podcast Open your game.
When he became a father, the chef, whom everyone knows by his first name, did not say that he had changed and gotten older. But when his wife Brigitte was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago.
facing death
“Because there I could suddenly lose what I loved most,” breathes the one who is not afraid to say that he has a traditional idea of the role of the man who has to take care of his wife and protect his family .
“But there’s nothing you can do about cancer,” he adds. Furthermore, cancer can come back and there is a 50% chance of it being passed on to his three daughters.
The famous chef then began making lists, some of which told his loved ones what they should do if he died.
All while his own mother was battling incurable pancreatic cancer under her roof. Because the son wanted to take care of his mother until the end of her life and teach his daughters about the importance of recognizing where we come from.
“I owe everything to women. I had male characters, but all the passing on of knowledge was done by the women in my life,” he explains. Ricardo also includes his sister Angèle in this important circle of women, who gave him his first chance on television and acted as a matchmaker between him and his wife.
Happy to grow old
Growing up with a verbally abusive father who died at age 56 – the exact age he is today – Ricardo Larrivee explains that he was inspired by that relationship in a positive way and knew the mistakes he made with his own family should not be repeated.
“My goal and greatest desire in life was to truly love a woman and that’s what happened. Anything can happen tomorrow, it will never go away. If I die tomorrow, I can’t say I regret anything. I have been loved, I have loved and I have experienced the happiness of sincere friendships,” he adds.
The proud father is moved to tears remembering his daughter Béatrice’s wedding last summer and says he has become much more sensitive to the joys and sadness of others over the years.
He believes that he has achieved everything he wanted to in his life and sees the rest of his existence as “an eternal bonus” of what can happen to him.
“I’m happy to grow old, but I think it’s a good thing to die. I don’t want to live forever, I would just postpone everything until tomorrow. I want to live, love, enjoy. Death is important – not too soon – but at some point it is time to let go. It forces me to be rigorous about my happiness,” he adds.